These attributes have led to the common clinical practice for vascular diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, to have ocular assessment as a routine component of their management. The eye is the only place in the body where both neurons and blood vessels can be directly visualized. Such findings have implications for both, the effect that neurological diseases have on vision as well as the possibility of using ocular tests as surrogate measures for detection or monitoring of systemic diseases. These range from reports of symptomatic alterations to vision, functional and structural changes in brain and retina, as well as the presence of key proteinopathy hallmarks of disease. As such it stands to reason that multidisciplinary research that investigates both will inform upon each other, especially in the context of neurodegenerative diseases.Ī rapidly emerging area of research is the use of the eye as a window to changes occurring in the brain. Furthermore, both organs modify similarly with disease. The eye is an anatomical extension of the brain where multiple parallels can be drawn between their neurons, vasculature and immune response.

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