@sb4ca
I don’t have the knowledge to answer your questions about a viral ocular infection other than the ocular nerve is a nerve that controls eye movements. Likewise, I cannot answer about herpes eye infection or aseptic meningitis without guessing. I would say, however, that I wonder how any of these eye infections would cause white matter lesions that would occur in the brain itself. This is a question for your neurologist or perhaps a specialist in eye diseases.

I thought it would be a good idea to explain what white matter is and what it means when there is a diagnosis of “white matter lesion”. The nervous system has white matter and grey matter and all of us (animals) have both grey matter and white matter in the peripheral and central nervous systems. Grey matter refers to brain cells, and some of the connections between among and between brain cells (connections called dendrites and some axons). White matter is made up of axons that are covered in a pearly white coating called myelin. White matter forms large tracts in the brain that connect one region of the brain to another region of the brain. White matter lesions refer to injuries that affect the white matter and so the conduction of nerve impulses from one place to another in the brain is affected when there is a white matter lesion. Some of the white matter injuries can be caused by a stroke, multiple sclerosis. or other diseases.

When someone is diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (or dementia) this means that could be changes in the brain that show up on the MRI. This does not always happen, by the way and sometimes the MRI doesn't show anything unusual.

Here are some links to this information:

White matter and grey matter:

-- https://www.simplypsychology.org/what-is-grey-matter-in-the-brain.html

Mild cognitive impairment:

--https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/what-is-dementia/related_conditions/mild-cognitive-impairment

What did you learn from your appointment with the neurologist today? What are the next steps?

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