Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-6-2026
Abstract
Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), partly driven by sensory stimulation, is crucial for maintaining homeostasis and clearing metabolic waste. Whether such stimulus-driven CSF flow is disrupted in age-related neurodegenerative diseases of the visual system remains unclear. This study examined the CSF flow during visual stimulation in glaucoma patients and healthy older adults using functional magnetic resonance imaging. In glaucoma, CSF inflow becomes progressively decoupled from the visually evoked blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) response. Specifically, the characteristic stimulus-locked CSF patterns, which decrease after stimulus onset and increase after offset, diminish with disease severity. Mediation analysis suggests this flattened CSF pattern is driven by a flatter ascending BOLD slope, leading to a shallower CSF trough and a reduced post-stimulus surge. These results indicate that glaucoma-related functional impairments contribute to downstream alterations in CSF dynamics. Overall, this study provides insight into how glaucoma disrupts visually driven CSF inflow and highlights in vivo biomarkers for monitoring CSF dynamics.
Recommended Citation
Bang, Ji Won; Parra, Carlos; Yu, Kevin; Lee, Hyun Seo; Wollstein, Gadi; Schuman, Joel; and Chan, Kevin, "Stimulus-Driven Cerebrospinal Fluid Dynamics Is Impaired in Glaucoma Patients" (2026). Wills Eye Hospital Papers. Paper 287.
https://jdc.jefferson.edu/willsfp/287
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
PubMed ID
41492048
Language
English
Comments
This article is the author’s final published version in npj Aging, Volume 12, Issue 1, 2026, Article number 17.
The published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41514-025-00315-z. Copyright © The Author(s) 2026.