Abstract #3785

Melanopsin retinal ganglion cells in LHON patients: an fMRI study of brain activations under monochromatic light stimulation

Stefania Evangelisti^1,2, Claudia Testa^1,2, Chiara La Morgia^1,3, Gilles Vandewalle⁴, Claudio Bianchini^1,2, David Neil Manners^1,2, Paola Fantazzini^5,6, Michele Carbonelli³, Alfredo Sadun^7,8, Caterina Tonon^1,2, Valerio Carelli^1,3, and Raffaele Lodi^1,2

¹Department of Biomedical and NeuroMotor Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy, ²Functional MR Unit, Policlinico S.Orsola - Malpighi, Bologna, Italy, ³IRCCS Institute of Neurological Sciences of Bologna, Bologna, Italy, ⁴Sleep Research Group; GIGA-Research, Cyclotron Research Centre/In vivo imaging unit, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium, ⁵Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy, ⁶Centro Enrico Fermi, Roma, Italy, ⁷Doheny Eye Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, United States, ⁸Doheny Eye Centers of UCLA, Department of Ophthalmology, David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, CA, United States

We combined light stimulation and fMRI to investigate the contribution of melanopsin-expressing retinal ganglion cells (mRGCs) to visual and non-visual processes in Leber Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (LHON) paradigm of retinal degeneration . Monochromatic visual simulation showed a stronger effect in LHON visual cortex for blue vs red light with relatively long stimuli, supporting the hypothesis of a role for melanopsin in visual processes. When light was combined with a working memory task, blue light modulation of cognitive brain response was maintained in LHON; indeed the effect was stronger than in healthy subjects, probably because of the higher mRGCs/RGCs ratio in LHON retinas.

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