Brain Gray Matter Atrophy and Functional Connectivity Remodeling in Patients With Chronic LHON
Open Access
- 12 May 2022
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Frontiers Media SA in Frontiers in Neuroscience
- Vol. 16, 885770
- https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2022.885770
Abstract
To investigate the brain gray matter volume (GMV) and spontaneous functional connectivity changes in patients with chronic Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON), and their relations with clinical measures. Thirty-two chronic LHON patients and matched sighted healthy controls (HC) underwent neuro-ophthalmologic examinations and multi-model MRI scans. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was used to detect the GMV differences between the LHON and HC. Furthermore, resting-state functional connectivity (FC) analysis using the VBM-identified clusters as seeds was carried out to detect potential functional reorganization in the LHON. Finally, the associations between the neuroimaging and clinical measures were performed. The average peripapillary retinal nerve fiber Layer (RNFL) thickness of the chronic LHON was significantly thinner (T=-16.421, P<0.001) and the mean defect of visual field was significantly higher (T = 11.28, P < 0.001) than the HC. VBM analysis demonstrated a significantly lower GMV of bilateral calcarine gyri in the LHON than the HC (P<0.05). Moreover, in comparison with the HC, the LHON had significantly lower FC between the centroid of the identified left calcarine gyrus and ipsilateral superior occipital gyrus, while higher FC between this cluster and the ipsilateral posterior cingulate gyrus (P<0.05, corrected). Finally, The GMV of the left calcarine gyrus was negatively correlated with the LHON duration (r=-0.535, P=0.002), and the FC between the left calcarine gyrus and the ipsilateral posterior cingulate gyrus of the LHON was negatively correlated with the average peripapillary RNFL thickness(r=-0.522, P=0.003). The atrophied primary visual cortex of the chronic LHON may be caused by trans-neuronal degeneration following the retinal damage. Moreover, our findings suggest that the functional organization of the atrophied primary visual cortex has been reshaped in the chronic LHON.Funding Information
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (81971599, 81771818, 81571659, 81271534, 81601473)
- Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin City (19JCYBJC25100, 17JCYBJC29200)
- Postdoctoral Research Foundation of China (2017M611175)
- Tianjin Municipal Education Commission (2020KJ207)
This publication has 42 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Development of Visual Areas Depends Differently on Visual ExperiencePLOS ONE, 2013
- Altered White Matter Integrity in the Congenital and Late Blind PeopleNeural Plasticity, 2013
- Secondary Post-Geniculate Involvement in Leber’s Hereditary Optic NeuropathyPLOS ONE, 2012
- A new neural framework for visuospatial processingNature Reviews Neuroscience, 2011
- Extra-Visual Functional and Structural Connection Abnormalities in Leber's Hereditary Optic NeuropathyPLOS ONE, 2011
- Oestrogens ameliorate mitochondrial dysfunction in Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathyBrain, 2010
- Changes in cortical grey matter density associated with long-standing retinal visual field defectsBrain, 2009
- Interaction of Stimulus-Driven Reorienting and Expectation in Ventral and Dorsal Frontoparietal and Basal Ganglia-Cortical NetworksJournal of Neuroscience, 2009
- Inherited mitochondrial optic neuropathiesJournal of Medical Genetics, 2008
- Region of interest analysis for fMRISocial Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 2007