Visual Impairment in Preclinical Models of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.

Impairment in visual function is common after traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the clinical setting, a phenomenon that translates to pre-clinical animal models as well. Our laboratory's previous work has reported histological changes following weight-drop induced TBI in a rodent model including retinal ganglion cell (RGC) loss, decreased electroretinogram (ERG) evoked potential, optic nerve diameter reduction, induced inflammation and gliosis, and loss of myelin accompanied by markedly impaired visual acuity. In this review, we will describe several preclinical TBI models that result in injuries to the visual system, indicating that visual function may be impaired following brain injury induced by a number of different injury modalities. This underscores the importance of understanding the role of the visual system and the potential detrimental sequelae to this sensory modality post-TBI. Given that most commonly employed behavioral tests such as Elevated Plus Maze, Morris Water Maze, and more, rely on an intact visual system, interpretation of functional deficits in diffuse models may be confounded by off target effects on the visual system.