Measurement of the visual system response and its correlation with the central nervous system in patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM)

Diabetes deteriorates the central nervous system declining the motion capacity, mental speed and efficiency. Additionally, diabetes affects the visual system particularly the retina. Both systems are evaluated separately even though they have a direct relationship to simple tasks such as object evasion. For these reasons, the main objective of this research is to study the relationship between retinal response and the patient’s cognitive abilities. This article presents the results of experimental tests applied to 34 patients diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus without diabetic retinopathy. Two visual perception experiments were applied in order to evaluate the simple and choice reaction times, while the electrical response of the retina was obtained via electroretinography. The results obtained from the visual perception experiments and the retinal evaluation were correlated with the following variables: central glucose; glycosylated hemoglobin and, age. The statistical analysis of the results shows a negative correlation between glucose and the times for retinal response (ta = - 0.2109 p = 0.2548, tb = - 0.2646 p = 0.1503). A significant correlation between the simple reaction times and the retinal response times was identified (ta = 0.3141 p = 0.0800, tb = 0.2981 p = 0.0975). While no relationship between the performance index and the retinal response was found. The results indicate that the visual system plays a fundamental role in the simple reaction process and this does not influence the decision-making process.