Widespread brain reorganization perturbs visuomotor coordination in early glaucoma

ECU Author/Contributor (non-ECU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)

Vivek,Bang,Ji Won,Parra,Carlos,Colbert,Max K.,O’Connell,Caitli Trivedi (Creator)

Institution

East Carolina University (ECU )

Web Site: http://www.ecu.edu/lib/

Abstract: Glaucoma is the world"s leading cause of irreversible blindness, and falls are a major public healthconcern in glaucoma patients. Although recent evidence suggests the involvements of the brain towardadvanced glaucoma stages, the early brain changes and their clinical and behavioral consequencesremain poorly described. This study aims to determine how glaucoma may impair the brain structurallyand functionally within and beyond the visual pathway in the early stages, and whether these changescan explain visuomotor impairments in glaucoma. Using multi-parametric magnetic resonanceimaging, glaucoma patients presented compromised white matter integrity along the central visualpathway and around the supramarginal gyrus, as well as reduced functional connectivity between thesupramarginal gyrus and the visual occipital and superior sensorimotor areas when compared to healthycontrols. Furthermore, decreased functional connectivity between the supramarginal gyrus and thevisual brain network may negatively impact postural control measured with dynamic posturographyin glaucoma patients. Taken together, this study demonstrates that widespread structural andfunctional brain reorganization is taking place in areas associated with visuomotor coordination in earlyglaucoma. These results implicate an important central mechanism by which glaucoma patients may besusceptible to visual impairments and increased risk of falls.

Additional Information

Publication

Other

Language: English

Date: 2019

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