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Published on: April 11, 2025
Early Visual Deprivation Impairs Functional Development of the Visual Ventral Stream
Yifan Xiang1, Jingwen Yang2,3, Leyan Gao2
1State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology and Vision Science, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Ocular Diseases, Guangzhou, China.
Insights
Children with early visual deprivation (VD) show altered neural processing after cataract removal. Their visual cortex and ventral stream have lower activation, with frontal areas compensating, impacting visual recovery.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Neuroscience
- Visual Processing
Background:
- Early visual deprivation (VD) can impact neural network development.
- Understanding real-time visual processing alterations post-VD is crucial for effective interventions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate dynamic changes in neural networks during real-time visual processing after early binocular VD removal.
- To compare visual processing in children with a history of VD to typically developing (TD) children.
Main Methods:
- Prospective cross-sectional study involving 20 children with early VD and 20 TD children.
- High-density electroencephalography (EEG) to record event-related potentials (ERPs).
- Analysis of ERP components (P1, N170, P2) across object, face, and character stimuli, using source localization and alpha power analysis.
Main Results:
- Children with VD exhibited significantly lower P1 amplitudes in the left occipito-temporal region compared to TD children.
- Source mapping revealed reduced activation in the visual cortex and ventral stream in the VD group.
- Frontal areas showed increased participation for functional compensation in the VD group, with significant alpha desynchronization during object recognition.
Conclusions:
- Early binocular VD removal leads to distinct alterations in visual network dynamics.
- Findings suggest a basis for poorer visual recovery and offer insights for developing visual rehabilitation strategies.
Purpose:
To probe the dynamic alternations of neural networks in real-time visual processing after visual deprivation (VD) removal.
Methods:
A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted. Twenty children with a history of early binocular VD caused by congenital cataracts and 20 matched typically developing (TD) children were enrolled. The event-related potential (ERP) data were obtained via high-density electroencephalography. ERP data were analyzed based on three components (P1, N170, and P2), three test conditions (objects, human faces, and Chinese characters), and peak time and region of interest (ROI) chosen on a grand average head map collapsed from the averaged waveform of each group. Source localization and alpha power spectrum density were applied to define the functional pattern of brain areas and evaluate the attention function.
Results:
The VD group showed significantly lower P1 amplitudes than the TD group under all conditions in peak ROIs, which were situated in the left occipito-temporal region. For both VD and TD groups, there were strong N170 effects in the character and human face conditions in the component's peak ROIs. Furthermore, source mapping indicated that the VD group generally showed significantly lower activation in the visual cortex and ventral stream, whereas the beyond network areas (mostly frontal areas) intensively participated in functional compensation in the VD group. The VD group showed significant poststimulus alpha desynchronization in object recognition.
Conclusions:
Our research described the mechanisms of visual networks after early binocular VD removal. Our findings may provide a new basis for the poor visual recovery after early binocular VD removal and offer clues for visual recovery strategies.
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