Reduction of GABA in the visual cortex of glaucoma patients is linked to decreased neural specificity.

Glaucoma is an age-related neurodegenerative disease of the visual system. Although increasing number of studies indicated its widespread involvements of the eye and the brain, very little is known about the underlying metabolic mechanisms. Thus, here we investigated the GABAergic and glutamatergic systems in the visual cortex of glaucoma patients, as well as neural specificity. Our study demonstrated that glaucoma is accompanied by the reduction of GABA and glutamate in the visual cortex. Further, the reduction of GABA but not glutamate predicted neural specificity. This suggests that GABA loss in the visual cortex degrades the neural specificity in glaucoma.