Abnormal dynamics of functional connectivity density in children with benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes

Abstract

Converging evidence has shown the link between benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS) and abnormal functional connectivity among distant brain regions. However, prior research in BECTS has not examined the dynamic changes in functional connectivity as networks form. We combined functional connectivity density (FCD) mapping and sliding windows correlation analyses, to fully capture the functional dynamics in patients with respect to the presence of interictal epileptic discharges (IEDs). Resting-state fMRI was performed in 43 BECTS patients and 28 healthy controls (HC). Patients were further classified into two subgroups, namely, IED (n = 20) and non-IED (n = 23) depending on the simultaneous EEG-fMRI recordings. The global dynamic FCD (dFCD) was measured using sliding window correlation. Then we quantified dFCD variability using their standard deviation. Compared with HC, patients with and without IEDs both showed invariable dFCD (decreased) among the orbital fontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex and striatum, as well as variable dFCD (increased) in the posterior default mode network (P < 0.05, AlphaSim corrected). Correlation analysis indicated that the variable dFCD in precuneus was related to seizure onset age (P < 0.05, uncorrected). BECTS with IEDs showed variable dFCD in regions related to the typical seizure semiology. The abnormal patterns of fluctuating FCD in BECTS suggest that both active and chronic epileptic state may contribute to altered dynamics of functional connectivity associated with cognitive disturbances and developmental alterations. These findings highlight the importance of considering fluctuating dynamic neural communication among brain systems to deepen our understanding of epilepsy diseases.

Altered inter‐ and intrahemispheric functional connectivity dynamics in autistic children

“…Network hubs facilitate efficient functional integration of information processing both within and between particular neural systems (Avena‐Koenigsberger, Misic, & Sporns, ). Subsequent FCD studies confirmed its sensitivity in detecting abnormalities of the functional connectivity hubs in psychiatric and neurological diseases (Lee et al, ; Li et al, ; Tomasi & Volkow, ).…”

Dynamic changes of amplitude of low‐frequency fluctuations in patients with generalized anxiety disorder

“…The sliding window method was applied to evaluate the dALFF for each participant using the DynamicBC toolbox (Liao et al, ). Previous studies proposed that the window length is an open but essential parameter in sliding‐window‐based resting‐state dynamics computation (Li et al, ; Li, Duan, et al, ; Liao et al, ) To avoid the introduction of spurious fluctuations, the minimum window length should be larger than 1/ f min , where f min is the minimum frequency of time series (Leonardi & Van De Ville, ; Li, Wang, et al, ). Here, a window length of 50 TR was considered as the optimal parameter to maintain the balance between capturing a rapidly shifting dynamic relationship and obtaining reliable estimates of the correlations between regions (Li, Liao, et al, ; Li, Wang, et al, ; Pang et al, ).…”

The epileptic network and cognition: What functional connectivity is teaching us about the childhood epilepsies

“…In children with CECTS, increased variability in the precuneus, a core component of the DMN, appears to be associated with an earlier age of seizure onset . A positive correlation between the segregation of DMN components, that is, the extent to which the anatomic network components were able to function independently, and intelligence quotient (IQ), verbal comprehension, and perceptual reasoning has been reported .…”

“…19 In children with CECTS, increased variability in the precuneus, a core component of the DMN, appears to be associated with an earlier age of seizure onset. 20 A positive correlation between the segregation of DMN components, that is, the extent to which the anatomic network components were able to function independently, and intelligence quotient (IQ), verbal comprehension, and perceptual reasoning has been reported. 21 In other studies, however, tests of correlation between connectivity measures and IQ reveal no significant results even when performance in one or more domains is decreased in the children with CECTS.…”

“…Electrographic measures suggest an overall increase in the connectivity within frontal and frontotemporal regions that appears to be partly driven by the IEDs. 48,49 The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in particular has repeatedly shown disease-related variations, with decreased regional homogeneity (ReHo) values, 27 less dynamic | 1501 BEAR Et Al variability, 20 and greater isolation from other networks. 33 This latter pattern has also been observed in a study reporting greater anticorrelation between the DMN and executive networks.…”