{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,19]],"date-time":"2026-06-19T05:51:35Z","timestamp":1781848295274,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":42,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,17]],"date-time":"2026-06-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1781654400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Fundamental and Interdisciplinary Disciplines Breakthrough Plan of the Ministry of Education of China","award":["JYB2025XDXM606"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["JYB2025XDXM606"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100012401","name":"Beijing Science and Technology Planning Project","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["Z25110100040000"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["Z25110100040000"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100012401","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"Beijing Natural Science Foundation","award":["4262007"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["4262007"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Bioengineering"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This study aimed to characterize cortical dysfunction and frequency-specific network reorganization following optic nerve injury using spin-exchange relaxation-free magnetoencephalography (SERF-MEG), and to assess the potential of MEG-derived multiscale features as sensitive functional biomarkers for clinical evaluation. In this prospective case\u2013control study, SERF-MEG recordings were acquired during a pattern-reversal visual stimulation paradigm. Time-domain evoked components (M100\/M135), global electrophysiological indices, energy-based metrics, and alpha- and beta-band phase-based functional connectivity were extracted. Network topology was quantified using graph-theoretical measures, including global and local efficiency, clustering coefficient, and assortativity. Group-level differences between patients and healthy controls were statistically analyzed. Patients showed significantly reduced M100\/M135 amplitudes, prolonged M100 latency, and a lower early-component energy ratio. Functional connectivity was significantly decreased in the alpha and beta bands, accompanied by reduced global and local efficiency, mean strength, and clustering coefficient. Seed-based analyses revealed reduced connectivity predominantly in occipito-parietal and occipito-temporal pathways. SERF-MEG provides sensitive identification of cortical- and network-level functional impairments following optic nerve damage. MEG has significant clinical potential for disease diagnosis and therapy monitoring, providing a novel objective assessment tool for neuro-ophthalmological disorders.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/bioengineering13060694","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,18]],"date-time":"2026-06-18T00:49:42Z","timestamp":1781743782000},"page":"694","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Decoding Visual Pathway Dysfunction with SERF-MEG: A Study in Patients with Optic Neuropathy"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0361-7749","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Helei","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Instrumentation and Optoelectronic Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China"},{"name":"Hangzhou National Institute of Extremely-Weak Magnetic Field Infrastructure, Hangzhou 310051, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0000-0512-7471","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yuankun","family":"Qi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Instrumentation and Optoelectronic Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China"},{"name":"Hangzhou National Institute of Extremely-Weak Magnetic Field Infrastructure, Hangzhou 310051, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1326-1771","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yu","family":"Lou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Instrumentation and Optoelectronic Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China"},{"name":"Hangzhou National Institute of Extremely-Weak Magnetic Field Infrastructure, Hangzhou 310051, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xu","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Instrumentation and Optoelectronic Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China"},{"name":"Hangzhou National Institute of Extremely-Weak Magnetic Field Infrastructure, Hangzhou 310051, China"},{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndrome, Hangzhou 310051, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xinda","family":"Song","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Instrumentation and Optoelectronic Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China"},{"name":"Hangzhou National Institute of Extremely-Weak Magnetic Field Infrastructure, Hangzhou 310051, China"},{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndrome, Hangzhou 310051, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Salvetat, M.L., Pellegrini, F., Spadea, L., Salati, C., and Zeppieri, M. 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