GABA decrease is associated with degraded neural specificity in the visual cortex of glaucoma patients

Reduced GABA in the visual cortex of glaucoma patients is shown to be tightly linked to disruption of stimulus-specific neural representations. Glaucoma is an age-related neurodegenerative disease of the visual system, affecting both the eye and the brain. Yet its underlying metabolic mechanisms and neurobehavioral relevance remain largely unclear. Here, using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy and functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated the GABAergic and glutamatergic systems in the visual cortex of glaucoma patients, as well as neural specificity, which is shaped by GABA and glutamate signals and underlies efficient sensory and cognitive functions. Our study shows that among the older adults, both GABA and glutamate levels decrease with increasing glaucoma severity regardless of age. Further, our study shows that the reduction of GABA but not glutamate predicts the neural specificity. This association is independent of the impairments on the retina structure, age, and the gray matter volume of the visual cortex. Our results suggest that glaucoma-specific decline of GABA undermines neural specificity in the visual cortex and that targeting GABA could improve the neural specificity in glaucoma.

Automated summary

Reduced GABA in the visual cortex of glaucoma patients is shown to be tightly linked to disruption of stimulus-specific neural representations. Our study reveals that both GABA and glutamate levels decrease with increasing glaucoma severity regardless of age among older adults. Furthermore, we found that the reduction of GABA but not glutamate predicts the neural specificity in glaucoma, independent of retina structure impairments, age, and the gray matter volume of the visual cortex. Our results suggest that targeting GABA could improve the neural specificity in glaucoma.