More than static: altered dynamic functional connectivity of primary visual cortex in the comitant exotropia patients

Previous neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that comitant exotropia (CE) patients exhibit dysfunction in various visual cortical areas. However, whether the CE patients showed abnormal dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) in primary visual cortex (V1) changes remains unknown. A total of 36 CE patients (25 males and 11 females) and 36 well-matched healthy control subjects (HCs) were enrolled in the study. The dFC with sliding window method was applied to investigate the dynamic functional connectivity changes in primary visual cortex (V1). Compared with HCs, CE patients had decreased dFC values between left V1 and right fusiform (Fus), right lingual (LING), left orbital medial frontal gyrus, left Fus, left calcarine and left precuneus (PreCUN). Meanwhile, CE patients had decreased dFC values between right V1 and left cerebelum_6 (CER_6), right lingual and left inferior occipital gyrus. Our study demonstrates that CE patients showed altered dFC within visual network and V1-default mode network, which might indicate the decreased variability FC values in the primary visual cortex in CE patients.