Yang Ying, Wang Yajun, Zhang Cun, Zhu Jiajia, Yu Yongqiang
Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230022, China.
Quant Imaging Med Surg. 2019 Mar;9(3):503-509. doi: 10.21037/qims.2019.03.03.
Contrast sensitivity (CS), a measurement of the ability to discriminate an object from its background, is an essential domain of visual functions. Eye aging or diseases are usually responsible for CS decline or impairment. However, whether neuroanatomical substrates are underlying CS is mostly unknown.
High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging data of 100 healthy young subjects from the Human Connectome Project (HCP) dataset were used to calculate gray matter volume (GMV). CS was assessed using the Mars Contrast Sensitivity Test. A multiple regression analysis was used to investigate the relationship between CS and GMV in a voxel-wise manner within the whole gray matter.
The range of Mars_Final scores for the 100 participants was from 1.08 to 1.88, and we found significant positive correlations between the CS scores and GMV in the bilateral visual cortex. Precisely, the significant bilateral clusters were mainly located in bilateral V3A, with the superior parts extending to the bilateral posterior parietal cortex.
These findings suggest the critical role of the dorsal visual stream in CS processing, which may provide insights into the neuroanatomical mechanism of contrast sensitivity and its relation to some brain disorders.
对比敏感度（CS）是一种区分物体与其背景的能力的测量指标，是视觉功能的一个重要领域。眼睛衰老或疾病通常会导致CS下降或受损。然而，神经解剖学基质是否是CS的基础大多未知。
使用来自人类连接体项目（HCP）数据集的100名健康年轻受试者的高分辨率磁共振成像数据来计算灰质体积（GMV）。使用火星对比敏感度测试评估CS。采用多元回归分析以体素方式研究整个灰质中CS与GMV之间的关系。
100名参与者的火星最终得分范围为1.08至1.88，我们发现双侧视觉皮层中CS得分与GMV之间存在显著正相关。具体而言，显著的双侧簇主要位于双侧V3A，上部延伸至双侧顶叶后皮质。
这些发现表明背侧视觉通路在CS处理中起关键作用，这可能为对比敏感度的神经解剖学机制及其与某些脑部疾病的关系提供见解。
