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Published on: December 8, 2023
Altered lateral geniculate nucleus functional connectivity and its correlation with retinal thickness in primary
Xuhao Chen1, Ning Wu2, Shaofen Huang1
1State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology Visual Science, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Ocular Diseases, Guangzhou, China.
Background:
Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) is one of the predominant causes of irreversible blindness. Though the glaucomatous transneuronal degeneration pass through the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) in the visual pathway, the functional changes associated with the LGN remains elusive. The current study aimed to investigate the seed-based whole-brain functional connectivity (FC) of the LGN and its correlation with retinal thickness in patients with POAG.
Methods:
T1-weighted scans and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) were extracted from 54 patients with POAG and 54 matched healthy controls from the UK Biobank. An automatic LGN segmentation protocol and FC analysis were conducted on the bilateral LGN. The Pearson correlation between retinal thickness and FC was explored.
Results:
The total LGN volume in patients with POAG was significantly decreased compared with controls (P = 0.042). The patients with POAG showed a pattern of reduced ALFF, fALFF, ReHo, and degree centrality value in brain regions. The left LGN demonstrated an increased FC between the right lingual gyrus and diminished FC with the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and left superior parietal lobule, whereas the left middle occipital gyrus exhibited reduced FC with the right LGN in patients with POAG. A positive correlation between the FC in the left MFG and the retinal average thickness (r = 0.292, P = 0.012), retinal nerve fiber layer average thickness (r = 0.272, P = 0.013), and ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer average thickness (r = 0.380, P = 0.001) was found.
Conclusions:
Patients with POAG exhibited LGN atrophy, reduced resting-state functional activity, and altered FC with the LGN in the regional cortex. The glaucomatous impairment of retinal thickness was associated with LGN volume and its connectivity strength with the left MFG. These findings offer a deeper insight into the LGN cortical connectivity alterations and its association with transneuronal degeneration in patients with POAG.
