Training in cortically-blind fields confers patient-specific benefit against retinal thinning after occipital stroke

Purpose Damage to the adult primary visual cortex (V1) causes vision loss in the contralateral hemifield, initiating a process of trans-synaptic retrograde degeneration (TRD). Here, we examined retinal correlates of TRD using a new metric to account for global changes in inner retinal thickness, and asked if perceptual training in the intact or blind field impacts its progression. Methods We performed a meta-analysis of optical coherence tomography (OCT) data in 48 participants with unilateral V1 stroke and homonymous visual defects, who completed clinical trial NCT03350919 . After measuring the thickness of the macular ganglion cell and inner plexiform layers (GCL-IPL), and the peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL), we computed individual laterality indices (LI) at baseline and after ∼6 months of daily motion discrimination training in the intact- or blind-field. Increasingly positive LI denoted greater layer thinning in retinal regions affected versus unaffected by the cortical damage. Results Pre-training, the affected GCL-IPL and RNFL were thinner than their unaffected counterparts, generating LI values positively correlated with time since stroke. Participants trained in their intact-field exhibited increased LI GCL-IPL . Those trained in their blind-field had no significant change in LI GCL-IPL . LI RNFL did not change in either group. Conclusions Relative shrinkage of the affected versus unaffected macular GCL-IPL can be reliably measured at an individual level and increases with time post-V1 stroke. Relative thinning progressed during intact-field training, but appeared to be halted by training within the blind field, suggesting a potentially neuroprotective effect of this simple behavioral intervention.