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Authors & Affiliations
Ayushi Sangoi, Farzin Hajebrahimi, Suril Gohel, Mitchell Scheiman, Arlene Goodman, Melissa Noble, Tara Alvarez
Abstract
The oculomotor vergence system controls disjunctive eye rotation of convergence (inwards) and divergence (outwards). Convergence Insufficiency (CI) is a binocular vision disorder that exists in 4-17% of the general population. CI incidence rates increase dramatically to ~50% of patients with persistent post-concussive symptoms (PPCS). Understanding the oculomotor vergence neural system in these groups can lead to improved oculomotor therapeutic interventions.10 binocularly normal vision (BNV) persons (17-22 years old) and 10 PPCS-CI (15-23 years old) participated in this study. Blood oxygenation level-dependent MRI data was taken by a 3T Siemens PRISMA and right eye position traces were captured using an Eyelink-1000 infrared system. The vergence oculomotor task was a block design of alternating rest and task blocks. The rest blocks consisted of 1 centered set of concentric boxes, while the task block evoked symmetric vergence responses through 2 sets of eccentric boxes at varying horizontal distances.Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM12) was used to preprocess the files and generate individual whole-brain functional maps for both groups of participants. An unpaired t-test for BNV and PPCS-CI was conducted with the vergence task. PPCS-CI had significant differences at a voxelwise threshold within the supplementary eye field, frontal eye fields, parietal eye fields, cerebellar vermis, and primary visual cortex (p<0.001) when compared to BNV. Future studies will increase the number of participants in both groups and explore differences in various visual systems, such as the sensory portion of the vergence system and the saccadic system amongst both populations.