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Altered local spontaneous brain activity pattern in children with right-eye amblyopia of varying degrees: evidence from fMRI

  • Advanced Neuroimaging
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Abstract

Purpose

To investigate the abnormal changes of local brain activity in children with right-eye amblyopia of varying degrees.

Methods

Data of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging were collected from 16 children with severe amblyopia, 17 children with mild to moderate amblyopia, and 15 children with normal binocular vision. Local brain activity was analyzed using the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo).

Results

There were extensive ALFF differences among the three groups in 10 brain regions. There were extensive differences in ReHo among the three groups in 11 brain regions. The ALFF and ReHo of the right orbital part of the middle frontal gyrus displayed a significantly positive correlation with the best-corrected visual acuity of the right eye, respectively. The ALFF value and ReHo value of the right orbital part of the middle frontal gyrus followed the pattern of normal control < mild to moderate amblyopia < severe amblyopia.

Conclusion

This study demonstrated that there were changes in specific patterns of ALFF and ReHo in children with right-eye amblyopia of different degrees in brain regions performing visual sensorimotor and attentional control functions.

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Funding

This work was supported by The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University (Grant No. YNQN2017160) and Henan Province Key R&D and Promotion Project (Science and Technology Research) (Grant Nos. 232102310094, 222102310317).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450052, China

    Xiaopan Zhang, Liang Liu, Yong Zhang, Jingliang Cheng & Baohong Wen

  2. Henan Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Brain Function, Zhengzhou, 450052, China

    Xiaopan Zhang, Liang Liu & Yong Zhang

  3. Department of Ophthalmology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450052, China

    Yadong Li, Kejia Wang & Guangying Zheng

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  1. Xiaopan Zhang
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Correspondence to Baohong Wen.

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Ethics approval

This study followed the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University Scientific research and clinical trial ethics committee (No. 2022-KY-0394–002).

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Informed consent to participate was obtained from all children’s guardian.

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Zhang, X., Liu, L., Li, Y. et al. Altered local spontaneous brain activity pattern in children with right-eye amblyopia of varying degrees: evidence from fMRI. Neuroradiology 65, 1757–1766 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-023-03221-x

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