Altered Brain Network Centrality In Patients With Adult Comitant Exotropia Strabismus: A Resting-state FMRI Study

Objective:To investigate the underlying functional networks brain-activity changes in patients with adult comitant exotropia strabismus(CES)and explore the changes by using the voxel-wise degree centrality(DC)method.Methods:Totally thirty patients with CES(17 males and 13 females),and thirty healthy controls(HCs)(17 males and 13 females)closely matched in age,gender,and education participated in the study.The DC method was used to evaluate the spontaneous brain activities.The receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve was performed to distinguish CESs from HCs,then explore the changes of brain network activity in patients with comitant exotropia strabismus.Results:Compared with HCs,CES patients had marked decreased DC values in the right cerebellum posterior lobe,right inferior frontal gyrus,right middle frontal gyrus and right superior parietal lobule/primary somatosensory cortex(S1);and marked increased DC values in the right superior temporal gyrus,bilateral anterior cingulate,right superior temporal gyrus,and left inferior parietal lobule.Conclusions:Adult comitant exotropia strabismus is associated with abnormalities functional network in many brain regions,which may indicate that comitant exotropia strabismus may be a disease involving the central nervous system abnormalities.