Functional effects of unilateral open-angle glaucoma on the primary and extrastriate visual cortex

The purpose of this study was to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the response of the visual cortex to unilateral primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG). Specifically, we assessed whether regions of V1 and V2 with lost input from the glaucomatous eye had a greater response to input from the nonaffected fellow eye. Nine participants with unilateral POAG causing paracentral visual field defects and four controls participated in the study. We found no evidence for an increased response to the fellow eye in glaucoma-affected regions of the visual cortex; however, in agreement with previous studies, there was a pronounced, retinotopically localized reduction of activation in both the primary (V1) and extrastriate visual cortex (V2), when participants viewed through their glaucomatous eye. Our results suggest a remarkable level of stability within the adult primary and extrastriate visual cortex in response to unilateral neurodegeneration of the optic nerve.