Mechanism of neurophysiological treatment of amblyopia using functional magnetic resonance imaging.
OBJECTIVE
To research the mechanism of neurophysiological treatment of amblyopia by observing the visual cortex activation under rotating grating stimulus with functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and identify the components of the activation.


METHODS
Nine healthy volunteers were examined using gradient-recalled echo and echo-planar imaging (GRE-EPI) pulse sequence performed at the 1.5 Tesla MRI scanner. In the block designing, rotating grating, stationary grating and luminance were plotted as task states, stationary grating, luminance and darkness as control states, respectively. The tasks of stimuli included 6 steps. Imaging processing and statistical analysis were carried out off-line using statistical parametric mapping (SPM99) software in single-subject.


RESULTS
Some individual areas of visual cortex were activated by various stimuli information supplied by rotating grating. The strong activation in the middle of occipital lobe related to the stimuli of luminance, bilateral activation of Brodmann's 19th area related to visual motion perception, and the mild activation in the middle of occipital lobe related to form perception.


CONCLUSIONS
The plotting of control state is important in bock design. The effective visual information of rotating grating includes components of luminance, visual motion perception and form perception. Functional MRI has potential as a tool for studying the physiological mechanism of visual cortex.
Lu
Guangming
G
Department of Medical Imaging, Jinling Hospital/Clinical School of Medical College of Nanjing University, Nanjing 210002, China. cjr.luguangmin@vip.163.com
Zhang
Zhiqiang
Z
Liang
Ping
P
Zhou
Wenzhen
W
Li
Lin
L
D000328:Adult; D000550:Amblyopia / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology