Exploration of static functional connectivity and dynamic functional connectivity alterations in the primary visual cortex among patients with high myopia

Aim: This study was conducted to explore differences in static functional connectivity (sFC) and dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) alteration patterns in the primary visual area (V1) among high myopia (HM) patients and healthy controls (HCs) Methods: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans were performed on 82 HM patients and 59 HCs who were closely matched for age, sex, and weight. Seed-based FC analysis was performed to identify alterations in the sFC and dFC patterns of the V1 in HM patients and HCs. Associations between mean sFC and dFC signal values and clinical symptoms in distinct brain areas among HM patients were identified Results: In the left anterior cingulate gyrus (L-ACG)/left superior parietal gyrus (L-SPG) and left V1, sFC values were significantly greater in HM patients than in HCs. In the L-ACG and right V1, sFC values were also significantly greater in HM patients than in HCs [two-tailed, voxel-level Conclusion: Patients with HM exhibited significantly disturbed FC between the V1 and various brain regions, including L-ACG, L-SPG, L-CAL, and R-LING. This disturbance suggests that patients with HM could exhibit impaired cognitive and emotional processing functions, top-down control of visual attention, and visual information processing functions. HM patients and HCs could be distinguished from each other with high accuracy using sFC and dFC variabilities. These findings may help to identify the neural mechanism of decreased visual performance in HM patients.