FIGURE 6.

Functional connectivity of the primary auditory areas. Anatomical locations for both the left and right Brodmann primary auditory areas (BA41) (A). The functional connectivity group results for FX and RFX analysis are presented for (B) sighted controls, (C) RPE65 patients at baseline, and (D) RPE65 patients 3 years post–gene therapy. All fixed-effects group analyses were performed at FDR corrected p < 0.02 (q < 0.05), with an extent threshold of >100 mm², and all RFX analyses were performed at an uncorrected p < 0.05 with an extent threshold >100 mm². Sighted controls showed significant bilateral functional connectivity between auditory, sensorimotor, frontal, and visual cortices. At baseline, compared to controls and post–gene therapy time point, RPE65 patients expressed similar, yet attenuated connectivity patterns particularly along the bilateral visual cortices. Three years after receiving their gene therapy, RPE65 patients’ connectivity of the primary auditory areas to the visual cortex significantly increased, yet remained attenuated as compared to the observed connectivity of the sighted controls.