Neurophysiological Correlates of Visual Motion Processing in Cerebral Visual Impairment

脑视觉障碍中视觉运动处理的神经生理学相关性

• 批准号: 10047300
• 负责人: Lotfi Merabet
• 金额: $ 27.5万
• 依托单位: MASSACHUSETTS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-09-30 至 2025-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10047300
• 关键词: Adolescent; Anisotropy; Attention; Behavior assessment; Behavioral; Brain; Cerebrum; Child; Child Care; Clinical assessments; Complex; Development; Diffusion; Dorsal; Education; Environment; Eye Movements; Fiber; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Functional disorder; Image; Impairment; Individual; Interdisciplinary Study; Investigation; Length; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Motion; Motion Perception; Multimodal Imaging; Nature; Network-based; Neuronal Plasticity; Outcome; Outcome Measure; Parietal; Participant; Pathway interactions; Pattern; Performance; Perinatal; Periventricular Leukomalacia; Population; Predisposition; Psychophysics; Rehabilitation therapy; Reporting; Research; Resolution; Rest; Signal Transduction; Stream; Structure; Testing; Time; United States; Visual; Visual Motion; Visual Pathways; Visual Psychophysics; Visual attention; Visual impairment; Visual system structure; base; behavior test; blood oxygen level dependent; clinical development; community involvement; cortical visual impairment; design; gaze; imaging approach; indexing; innovation; insight; interest; multimodality; neural correlate; neuroimaging; neurophysiology; programs; rehabilitation strategy; response; secondary outcome; statistics; virtual reality; virtual reality simulation; visual processing; visual search; white matter

Summary Cerebral (cortical) visual impairment (CVI) is the leading cause of congenital vision impairment in the United States. Yet, there remains an alarming gap in our understanding as to how observed visual perceptual deficits in these individuals relate to perinatal damage and early maldevelopment of central visual pathways and structures. Children and adolescents with CVI show striking impairments in complex motion processing (a dorsal stream function), particularly in the setting of complex dynamic environmental scenes. While impaired motion perception is an important marker of developmental vulnerability (referred to as the dorsal stream dysfunction hypothesis), standard ophthalmic clinical assessments fail to capture and fully characterize these visual deficits. Thus, in the absence of any apparent ocular abnormality, clinicians may dismiss reported perceptual difficulties, and many individuals with CVI will remain undiagnosed and never receive the timely education and rehabilitative support they need. The objective of the proposed research is to investigate the underlying neurophysiology associated with motion processing deficits in CVI. We will carry out psychophysical behavioral testing combined with multimodal neuroimaging (to characterize structural and functional connectivity along with brain network activation) in children and adolescents with CVI associated with periventricular leukomalacia (PVL). Indices of behavioral performance and neuroimaging outcomes will be compared to neurotypical controls. Our overarching hypothesis is that motion processing deficits will be associated with the maldevelopment of key visual processing pathways. However, altered patterns of functional connectivity and activation of brain networks implicated in complex motion perception may serve as indicators of compensatory neuroplasticity. In our first aim, we will assess motion processing abilities using random dot kinematograms, virtual reality simulations, and visual search tasks. In our second aim, we will characterize the integrity and topology of structural and functional connectivity networks (using high angular resolution diffusion imaging and resting state fMRI respectively) implicated with visual motion and attention processing. The third aim will investigate brain network activation (using functional MRI) in response to our behavioral task assessments. Executed by a multidisciplinary research team with strong community involvement, this combined behavioral assessment and multimodal imaging approach represents a key distinguishing innovation of the proposal. This study will provide convergent and high-level insights into the neurophysiological basis of visual motion perceptual deficits in CVI. The proposed program of research is highly significant given that uncovering brain-behavioral associations in the case of CVI represents a crucial step in establishing a neurorehabilitative framework specifically designed for the care of these children; a population that has been greatly underserved despite its important

概括 大脑（皮质）视觉障碍（CVI）是曼联先天性视力障碍的主要原因 国家。然而，关于观察到的视觉感知缺陷的理解，我们的理解仍然存在一个令人震惊的差距 在这些人中 结构。 CVI的儿童和青少年在复杂的运动处理中显示出惊人的障碍（a 背面功能），特别是在复杂的动态环境场景的环境中。虽然受损 运动感知是发育脆弱性的重要标志（称为背流 功能障碍假设），标准眼科临床评估无法捕获并充分表征这些 视觉缺陷。因此，在没有任何明显的眼异常的情况下，临床医生可能会驳回报告 感知困难，许多CVI的人将保持未诊断，并且永远不会及时获得 他们需要的教育和康复支持。拟议研究的目的是调查 与CVI中运动处理缺陷相关的基本神经生理学。我们将进行心理物理 行为测试结合了多模式神经影像学（表征结构和功能 与CVI相关的儿童和青少年的连通性以及大脑网络激活） 脑室白细胞（PVL）。行为表现和神经成像结果的指标将是 与神经型对照相比。我们的总体假设是运动处理缺陷将是 与关键视觉处理途径的马尔达开发有关。但是，改变的模式 与复杂运动感知有关的大脑网络的功能连通性和激活可能是 补偿性神经塑性的指标。在我们的第一个目标中，我们将使用 随机点运动图，虚拟现实模拟和视觉搜索任务。在我们的第二个目标中，我们将 表征结构和功能连接网络的完整性和拓扑（使用高角度 分辨率扩散成像和静止状态fMRI）与视觉运动和注意力有关 加工。第三个目标将研究大脑网络激活（使用功能性MRI）来响应我们 行为任务评估。由具有强大社区的多学科研究团队执行 参与，这种联合行为评估和多模式成像方法代表了关键 区分提案的创新。这项研究将为您提供收敛和高级见解 CVI中视觉运动知觉缺陷的神经生理基础。拟议的研究计划是 鉴于在CVI的情况下发现大脑行为的关联是至关重要的 建立专门为照顾这些孩子设计的神经居住框架的一步；一个 尽管它很重要，但人口非常不足