Journal
EYE AND BRAIN
Volume 14, Issue -, Pages 71-82Publisher
DOVE MEDICAL PRESS LTD
DOI: 10.2147/EB.S358384
Keywords
visual function; vision; cortical thickness; brain; morphometry; MRI
Categories
Funding
- ANR - Agence Nationale de la Recherche (French National Research Agency) [MALZ-007-01]
- Chercheur d'Avenir [R12028FF]
- Aide a la Recherche en Partenariat avec les Entreprises (ARPE) [RPH12007F]
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This study investigated the association between visual function and cortical thickness in older adults, finding that vision loss was associated with thinning of the right insula cortex. The reduced insula thickness may lead to increased cognitive burden in the ageing brain.
Purpose: Visual impairment is a major cause of disability and impairment of cognitive function in older people. Brain structural changes associated with visual function impairment are not well understood. The objective of this study was to assess the association between visual function and cortical thickness in older adults. Methods: Participants were selected from the French population-based ESPRIT cohort of 2259 community-dwelling adults >= 65 years old enrolled between 1999 and 2001. We considered visual function and brain MRI images at the 12-year follow-up in participants who were right-handed and free of dementia and/or stroke, randomly selected from the whole cohort. High-resolution structural T1-weighted brain scans acquired with a 3-Tesla scanner. Regional reconstruction and segmentation involved using the Results: A total of 215 participants were included (mean [SD] age 81.8 [3.7] years; 53.0% women): 30 (14.0%) had central vision loss and 185 (86.0%) normal central vision. Vision loss was associated with thinner cortical thickness in the right insula (within the lateral sulcus of the brain) as compared with the control group (mean thickness 2.38 [0.04] vs 2.50 [0.03] mm, 4.8% thinning, pcorrected = 0.04) after adjustment for age, sex, lifetime depression and cardiovascular disease. Conclusion: The present study describes a significant thinning of the right insular cortex in older adults with vision loss. The insula subserves a wide variety of functions in humans ranging from sensory and affective processing to high-level cognitive processing. Reduced insula thickness associated with vision loss may increase cognitive burden in the ageing brain.
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