Journal article
Functional activity changes after vergence and accommodative rehabilitation of concussion-related convergence insufficiency: CONCUSS clinical trial fMRI results
Frontiers in neuroscience, v 19, 1703781
21 Oct 2025
PMID: 41195283
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Introduction: The CONCUSS clinical trial examined the neural changes associated with office-based vergence/accommodative therapy with movement (OBVAM) in concussion-related convergence insufficiency (CONC-CI).
Methods: The following assessments were collected at baseline and post-OBVAM therapy: activity evoked from a functional MRI vergence oculomotor task, near point of convergence (NPC), positive fusional vergence (PFV), vergence facility (VF), and visual symptoms from a sensorimotor vision exam. Fifty-four CONC-CI participants, diagnosed with persisting concussion symptoms between one- and six-months post-injury, were analyzed in group-level results.
Results: Functional activity in the vergence oculomotor network, specifically the frontal eye fields, supplemental eye fields, parietal eye fields, cerebellar vermis (CV), and visual cortex, increased post-OBVAM compared to baseline assessments. Significant increases in post-OBVAM compared to baseline assessments were observed in the visual cortex (bilateral V3 and right area PH) and the CV, via a paired t-test with family-wise error corrected for multiple comparisons (p < 0.05). The pooled baseline and post-OBVAM measures revealed that the bilateral functional activities of V3 and CV were significantly correlated with the NPC, PFV, and VF clinical signs, and the right hemisphere area PH within the visual cortex was significantly correlated with VF (Bonferroni-corrected; p < 0.001). To determine whether the CONC-CI post-OBVAM functional brain activity differed from that of the binocularly normal control (BNC) data, an unpaired t-test was performed comparing 46 age-matched BNC datasets with 54 CONC-CI datasets. Significant differences in functional activity between BNC and CONC-CI at post-OBVAM datasets were not observed (p > 0.05).
Discussion: Results support that OBVAM improves functional brain activity in CONC-CI correlated with NPC, PFV, and VF.
Metrics
8 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Functional activity changes after vergence and accommodative rehabilitation of concussion-related convergence insufficiency: CONCUSS clinical trial fMRI results
- Creators
- Ayushi Sangoi - New Jersey Institute of TechnologyFarzin Hajebrahimi - New Jersey Institute of TechnologySuril Gohel - Rutgers University USE Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (United States, New Brunswick) - RUMitchell Scheiman - Drexel UniversityArlene GoodmanMelissa Noble - New Jersey Institute of TechnologyTara L. Alvarez (Corresponding Author) - New Jersey Institute of Technology
- Publication Details
- Frontiers in neuroscience, v 19, 1703781
- Publisher
- Frontiers
- Number of pages
- 13
- Grant note
- National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Bethesda, Maryland: NEI- R01EY023261
The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research and/or publication of this article. This publication was made possible, in part, by the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Bethesda, Maryland NEI- R01EY023261 (Alvarez).
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO)
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001607793600001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-105020942396
- Other Identifier
- 991022127845204721
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Neurosciences