Ding Jingwen, Qu Xiaoxia, Cui Jing, Dong Jie, Guo Jian, Xian Junfang, Li Dongmei
Beijing Ophthalmology & Visual Science Key Lab, Department of Ophthalmology, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Department of Radiology, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Front Neurol. 2022 Feb 24;13:789655. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2022.789655. eCollection 2022.
Individuals with congenital monocular blindness may have specific brain changes since the brain is prenatally deprived of half the normal visual input. To explore characteristic brain functional changes of congenital monocular blindness, we analyzed resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) data of 16 patients with unilateral congenital microphthalmia and 16 healthy subjects with normal vision to compare intergroup differences of amplitude of low frequency fluctuations (ALFFs), functional connectivity (FC), and network topolgoical properties. Compared with controls, patients with microphthalmia exhibited significantly lower ALFF values in the left inferior occipital and temporal gyri, superior temporal gyrus, inferior parietal lobe and post-central gyrus, whereas higher ALFF in the right middle and inferior temporal gyri, middle and superior frontal gyri, left superior frontal, and temporal gyri, such as angular gyrus. Meanwhile, FC between left medial superior frontal gyrus and angular gyrus, FC between left superior temporal gyrus and inferior parietal lobe and post-central gyrus decreased in the patients with congenital microphthalmia. In addition, a graph theory-analysis revealed increased regional network metrics (degree centrality and nodal efficiency) in the middle and inferior temporal gyri and middle and superior frontal gyri, while decreased values in the inferior occipital and temporal gyri, inferior parietal lobule, post-central gyrus, and angular gyrus. Taken together, patients with congenital microphthalmia had widespread abnormal activities within neural networks involving the vision and language and language-related regions played dominant roles in their brain networks. These findings may provide clues for functional reorganization of vision and language networks induced by the congenital monocular blindness.
由于大脑在出生前就被剥夺了一半的正常视觉输入，患有先天性单眼失明的个体可能会出现特定的脑部变化。为了探究先天性单眼失明的特征性脑功能变化，我们分析了16例单侧先天性小眼症患者和16例视力正常的健康受试者的静息态功能磁共振成像（rs-fMRI）数据，以比较低频波动幅度（ALFF）、功能连接（FC）和网络拓扑属性的组间差异。与对照组相比，小眼症患者在左侧枕下回、颞叶下回、颞上回、顶下小叶和中央后回的ALFF值显著降低，而在右侧颞中回和颞下回、额中回和额上回、左侧额上回和颞回（如角回）的ALFF值较高。同时，先天性小眼症患者左侧额内侧上回与角回之间的FC、左侧颞上回与顶下小叶及中央后回之间的FC降低。此外，图论分析显示颞中回和颞下回、额中回和额上回的区域网络指标（度中心性和节点效率）增加，而枕下回和颞下回、顶下小叶、中央后回和角回的值降低。综上所述，先天性小眼症患者在涉及视觉和语言的神经网络中存在广泛的异常活动，且语言相关区域在其脑网络中起主导作用。这些发现可能为先天性单眼失明引起的视觉和语言网络功能重组提供线索。
