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Comparative Study
. 2014 Feb 24;9(2):e89493.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0089493. eCollection 2014.

Altered spontaneous brain activity in primary open angle glaucoma: a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Yinwei Song  1 , Ketao Mu  2 , Junming Wang  1 , Fuchun Lin  3 , Zhiqi Chen  1 , Xiaoqin Yan  1 , Yonghong Hao  2 , Wenzhen Zhu  2 , Hong Zhang  1
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Altered spontaneous brain activity in primary open angle glaucoma: a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Yinwei Song et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: Previous studies demonstrated that primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) is associated with abnormal brain structure; however, little is known about the changes in the local synchronization of spontaneous activity. The main objective of this study was to investigate spontaneous brain activity in patients with POAG using regional homogeneity (ReHo) analysis based on resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI).

Methodology/principal findings: Thirty-nine POAG patients and forty-one age- and gender- matched healthy controls were finally included in the study. ReHo values were used to evaluate spontaneous brain activity and whole brain voxel-wise analysis of ReHo was carried out to detect differences by region in spontaneous brain activity between groups. Compared to controls, POAG patients showed increased ReHo in the right dorsal anterior cingulated cortex, the bilateral medial frontal gyrus and the right cerebellar anterior lobe, and decreased ReHo in the bilateral calcarine, bilateral precuneus gryus, bilateral pre/postcentral gyrus, left inferior parietal lobule and left cerebellum posterior lobe. A multiple linear regression analysis was performed to explore the relationships between clinical measures and ReHo by region showed significant group differences in the POAG group. Negative correlations were found between age and the ReHo values of the superior frontal gyrus (r = -0.323, p = 0.045), left calcarine (r = -0.357, p = 0.026) and inferior parietal lobule (r = -0.362, p = 0.024). A negative correlation was found between the ReHo values of the left precuneus and the cumulative mean defect (r = -0.400, p = 0.012).

Conclusions: POAG was associated with abnormal brain spontaneous activity in some brain regions and such changed regional activity may be associated with clinical parameters. Spontaneous brain activity may play a role in POAG initiation and progression.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Results from one-sample t-test on ReHo maps for healthy subjects (CON, upper) and POAG patients (lower).
Threshold was set to p<0.05 with AlphaSim correction.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Significant differences of spontaneous brain activity between the POAG group and normal control group (p<0.05 with AlphaSim correction).
The right dorsal anterior cingulate, bilateral medial superior frontal gyrus, bilateral medial frontal gyrus and right cerebellum anterior lobe showed increased spontaneous brain activity in POAG group (red). The bilateral calcarine, right lingual gyrus, bilateral precuneus gyrus, left cerebellum posterior lobe, left inferior parietal lobule, bilateral precentral and postcentral gyrus showed decreased spontaneous brain activity in POAG group (blue).
Figure 3
Figure 3. ReHo values of the left precuneus showed negative correlation with cumulative MD values in POAG group (r = −0.400, p = 0.012).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Publication types

Grants and funding

This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation(Grants No 81170842 and 81171308) of China, and National Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China during the “12th Five-year Plan” (Grants No 2011BAI08B10). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.