title: The Structural Properties of Major White Matter Tracts in Strabismic Amblyopia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In order to better understand whether white matter structural deficits are present in strabismic amblyopia, we performed a survey of the tissue properties of 28 major white matter tracts using diffusion and quantitative magnetic resonance imaging approaches.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used diffusion-based tensor modeling and a new quantitative T1 protocol to measure fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), and myelin-sensitive T1 values. We surveyed tracts in the occipital lobe, including the vertical occipital fasciculus (VOF)-a newly rediscovered tract that bridges dorsal and ventral areas of the occipital lobe, as well as tracts across the rest of the brain.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Adults with long-standing strabismic amblyopia show tract-specific elevations in MD. We rank-ordered the tracts on the basis of their MD effect-size. The four most affected tracts were the anterior frontal corpus callosum (ACC), the right VOF, the left inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF) and the left optic radiation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results suggest that most white matter tissue properties are relatively robust to the early visual insult caused by strabismus. However, strabismic amblyopia does affect MD, not only in occipital tracts, such as the VOF and optic radiation, but also in long range association tracts connecting visual cortex to the frontal and temporal lobes (ILF) and connecting the two hemispheres (ACC).
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States.
authors.forename: Yiran
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States.
authors.forename: Anthony M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Norcia
authors.affiliation: Institute for Learning and Brain Science (ILABS), University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States.
authors.forename: Jason D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Yeatman
authors.affiliation: Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Aviv
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mezer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000550:Amblyopia / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D016880:Anisotropy; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003337:Corpus Callosum / Q000473:pathology*; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000473:pathology*; D013285:Strabismus / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D066127:White Matter / Q000473:pathology*