Changes in the Visual Areas of the Cerebral Cortex in Children with Left-Sided Anisometropic Amblyopia: Structural MRI and Resting-State fMRI Data

The development of structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques over the decades has led to many studies seeking to identify cerebral abnormalities in amblyopia. The cause of reduced visual acuity and other visual characteristics of this common visual disorder cannot be identified by standard ophthalmological examination. As there are several variants of this disease, with fundamental differences in etiology, it is natural to suggest that there are different types of corresponding abnormalities in the brain. Thus, until a general picture of the pathogenesis of amblyopia is obtained, studies on groups of specially selected patients with similar symptomatologies are very important. The present paper presents a study of school-age children with left-sided anisometropic amblyopia. Structural MRI revealed interhemisphere differences in the thickness of the lateral occipital cortex in these patients, while resting-state functional MRI revealed interhemisphere differences in local hemodynamic signal coherence in Brodmann area 17 and in the functional connectivity of area 17 with areas 18 and 19. The results contribute to the creation of a general MRI database on the pathophysiology of amblyopia, clarify some controversial issues, and indicate the feasibility of using resting-state functional MRI in ophthalmology.