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Patients with juvenile retinal dystrophy often report that they are unaware of their central scotoma, suggesting the presence of perceptual filling-in. We used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to determine possible neural correlates of perceptual filling-in in patients with retinal distrophy and clinically established central scotoma in both eyes. The data of 5 patients (Stargardt disease, cone-rod dystrophy; mean age 45 yrs; scotoma diameter 10-20°) and of 5 normally sighted controls were analyzed. Fixation behaviour and perimetry were measured with a Nidek microperimeter. Magnetic resonance imaging was performed using a Siemens 3T Allegra scanner. We stimulated the central visual field (30 deg) with a vertically oriented, low spatial frequency (1 c/deg) high-contrast sinewave grating that was either a) continuous, or b) was interrupted by a central grey disk. The disk was either slightly larger than the scotoma (detectable on 75% of trials) or slightly smaller (detectable on 25% of trials). To control for attention, an eccentric fixation task was performed during scanning. Data were analyzed using SPM8 (GLM with ROI analysis to obtain percent signal change for foveal projection zone). Results: for all patients, the BOLD signal in the foveal projection area was significantly higher for the small disk (i.e., condition leading to complete filling-in) than for the large disk (i.e., no filling-in). This effect was absent in the control subjects. Our findings support the existence of an active neural process that leads to filling-in in patients with central visual field scotomata.
Background:
Brain lesions in language-related cortical areas remain a challenge in the clinical routine. In recent years the resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) was shown to be a feasible method for preoperative language assessment. The aim of this study was to examine whether language-related resting-state components, which have been obtained using a data-driven independent-component-based identification algorithm, can be supportive in determining language dominance in the left or right hemisphere.
Methods:
Twenty patients suffering from brain lesions close to supposed language relevant cortical areas were included. Rs-fMRI and task-based (tb-fMRI) were performed for the purpose of preoperative language assessment. Tb-fMRI included a verb generation task with an appropriate control condition (a syllable switching task) to decompose language critical and language supportive processes. Subsequently, the best fitting ICA component for the resting-state language network (RSLN) referential to general linear models (GLMs) of the tb-fMRI (including models with and without linguistic control conditions) was identified using an algorithm based on the Dice-index.
Results:
The RSLNs associated with GLMs using a linguistic control condition led to significantly higher laterality indices than GLM baseline contrasts. LIs derived from GLM contrasts with and without control conditions alone did not differ significantly.
Conclusion:
In general, the results suggest that determining language dominance in the human brain is feasible both with tb-fMRI and rs-fMRI, and in particular, the combination of both approaches yields a higher specificity in preoperative language assessment. Moreover, we can conclude that the choice of the language mapping paradigm is crucial for the mentioned benefits.