Effect of visual stimulation on cerebrospinal fluid flow is impaired in glaucoma patients

Motivation: Glaucoma is an age-related neurodegenerative disease of the visual system. Recent studies suggested that glaucoma may lead to changes in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) dynamics, which can be influenced by neural activity. However, it remains unclear how the CSF dynamics is altered in glaucoma. Goal(s): To test whether the impact of visual stimulation on CSF inflow is impaired in glaucoma. Approach: We used visually-evoked BOLD fMRI responses to compare the coupling between BOLD activity and CSF inflow across healthy individuals and glaucoma patients. Results: Our findings indicate that the influence of visual stimulation on CSF inflow decreases with glaucoma severity. Impact: Our findings suggest that CSF inflow is altered in glaucoma. Future studies should investigate whether this reduced impact of visual stimulation on CSF inflow is due to impaired neural activity or impaired interaction between cerebrovascular activity and CSF dynamics.