Neurovascular coupling dysfunction in high myopia patients: Evidence from a multi-modal magnetic resonance imaging analysis

Background and purpose: To investigate neurovascular coupling dysfunction in high myopia (HM) patients.

Materials and methods: A total of 37 HM patients and 36 healthy controls were included in this study. Degree centrality (DC), regional homogeneity (ReHo), amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF), and fractional ALFF (fALFF) maps were employed to represent neuronal activity. Cerebral blood perfusion was characterized by cerebral blood flow (CBF). The correlation coefficient was calculated to reflect the relationship between neuronal activity and cerebral blood perfusion. Pearson partial correlation analysis was utilized to evaluate the association between HM dysfunction and clinical indicators.

Results: HM patients exhibited significant alterations in neurovascular coupling across 37 brain regions compared to healthy controls. The brain regions with marked changes varied among the four neurovascular coupling patterns, including the middle frontal gyrus, superior occipital gyrus, middle occipital gyrus, and fusiform gyrus. Additionally, the superior frontal gyrus orbital part, medial superior frontal gyrus, inferior occipital gyrus, and dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus displayed significant changes in three coupling patterns. In HM patients, the ReHo-CBF changes in the inferior frontal gyrus orbital part were positively correlated with best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and refractive diopter changes. Similarly, the ALFF-CBF changes in the inferior frontal gyrus orbital part showed a positive correlation with refractive diopter changes. ReHo-CBF and ALFF-CBF alterations in the paracentral lobule were positively correlated with BCVA and refractive diopter changes.

Conclusion: Our findings underscore the abnormal alterations in neurovascular coupling across multiple brain regions in HM patients. These results suggest that neurovascular dysfunction in HM patients may be associated with an aberrant visual regulation mechanism.