Altered Temporal Dynamic Intrinsic Brain Activity in Late Blindness.

Xin Huang,Zhi Wen,Yan Tong,Bao-Jun Xie,Han-Dong Dan,Chen-Xing Qi,Yin Shen

doi:10.1155/2020/1913805

Xin Huang, Zhi Wen + Show 5 more

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https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/1913805

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Abstract

Previous neuroimaging studies demonstrated that visual deprivation triggers significant crossmodal plasticity in the functional and structural architecture of the brain. However, prior neuroimaging studies focused on the static brain activity in blindness. It remains unknown whether alterations of dynamic intrinsic brain activity occur in late blindness (LB). This study investigated dynamic intrinsic brain activity changes in individuals with late blindness by assessing the dynamic amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (dALFFs) using sliding-window analyses. Forty-one cases of late blindness (LB) (29 males and 12 females, mean age: 39.70 ± 12.66 years) and 48 sighted controls (SCs) (17 males and 31 females, mean age: 43.23 ± 13.40 years) closely matched in age, sex, and education level were enrolled in this study. The dALFF with sliding-window analyses was used to compare the difference in dynamic intrinsic brain activity between the two groups. Compared with SCs, individuals with LB exhibited significantly lower dALFF values in the bilateral lingual gyrus (LING)/calcarine (CAL) and left thalamus (THA). LB cases also showed considerably decreased dFC values between the bilateral LING/CAL and the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and between the left THA and the right LING/cerebelum_6 (CER) (two-tailed, voxel-level P < 0.01, Gaussian random field (GRF) correction, cluster-level P < 0.05). Our study demonstrated that LB individuals showed lower-temporal variability of dALFF in the visual cortices and thalamus, suggesting lower flexibility of visual thalamocortical activity, which might reflect impaired visual processing in LB individuals. These findings indicate that abnormal dynamic intrinsic brain activity might be involved in the neurophysiological mechanisms of LB.

Highlights

Visual deprivation leads to significant crossmodal plasticity in the brain’s functional and structural architecture
We showed that individuals with late blindness (LB) displayed significantly lower dynamic amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (dALFFs) values in the bilateral lingual gyrus (LING)/CAL and left THA relative to the sighted controls (SCs) group
We demonstrated that retinitis pigmentosa (RP) patients had significantly lower amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) values in the bilateral lingual gyrus/cerebellum posterior lobe relative to the HC group [43]

Summary

Introduction

Visual deprivation leads to significant crossmodal plasticity in the brain’s functional and structural architecture. Several neuroimaging studies have shown that blindness is associated with progressive atrophy of the visual pathway [6, 7] and visual cortices [8], as well as with abnormalities in non-visual areas [9, 10]. Liu et al demonstrated that early blindness increases regional homogeneity (ReHo) in the visual cortex [11]. On their part, Jiang et al reported that blindness increases regional spontaneous brain activity in visual areas and reduces it in sensorimotor and salience networks [12]. According to previous neuroimaging studies, blindness harbors abnormal interconnections between the visual cortex and other cortices: motor cortex [13, 14], Broca’s area [15], and auditory cortex [16]. StriemAmit et al found that central V1 is more strongly connected

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