Li Qifu, Cao Weifang, Liao Xiaoping, Chen Zhibin, Yang Tianhua, Gong Qiyong, Zhou Dong, Luo Cheng, Yao Dezhong
Department of Neurology, The Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical College, Haikou, China.
Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, Center for Information in BioMedicine, High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China; Department of Radiology, Taishan Medical University, Taian 271016, China.
J Neurol Sci. 2015 Jul 15;354(1-2):79-85. doi: 10.1016/j.jns.2015.04.054. Epub 2015 May 8.
Altered functional connectivity has been associated with the influence of epileptic activity. Abnormalities in connectivity, particularly in dorsal attention (DAN), salience (SN) and default mode (DMN) networks, might contribute to the loss of consciousness during seizures and cognitive deficits in patients with children absence epilepsy (CAE). The objective of the present study was to identify whether the functional network connectivity (FNC) is changed between patients with CAE and healthy controls. Using independent component analysis, twelve resting state networks (RSNs) were identified in resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging data sets in eighteen CAE patients and twenty-one healthy controls. Analyses of the group differences in FNC strength were conducted, controlling for age and gender effects. The findings showed that some functional networks were clustered into two subgroups, correlated within subgroups and antagonized with each other. Compared with the controls, patients with CAE demonstrated abnormal FNC strength among three networks: DMN, DAN and SN. In addition, the antagonism of two subgroups was altered. These results might reflect the underlying neuronal functional impairment or altered integration among these RSNs in CAE, suggesting that the abnormal functional connectivity is likely to imply the pathological mechanism associated with the accumulative influence of epileptic activity. These findings contribute to the understanding of the behavior abnormality in CAE, such as disturbed executive and attentional functions and the loss of consciousness during absence seizures.
功能连接的改变与癫痫活动的影响有关。连接异常，尤其是在背侧注意网络（DAN）、突显网络（SN）和默认模式网络（DMN）中，可能导致儿童失神癫痫（CAE）患者发作期间意识丧失和认知缺陷。本研究的目的是确定CAE患者与健康对照之间的功能网络连接（FNC）是否发生改变。使用独立成分分析，在18例CAE患者和21例健康对照的静息态功能磁共振成像数据集中识别出12个静息态网络（RSN）。对FNC强度的组间差异进行分析，并控制年龄和性别效应。研究结果表明，一些功能网络聚为两个亚组，亚组内相关且相互拮抗。与对照组相比，CAE患者在DMN、DAN和SN这三个网络中表现出异常的FNC强度。此外，两个亚组之间的拮抗作用发生了改变。这些结果可能反映了CAE中这些RSN潜在的神经元功能损害或整合改变，表明异常的功能连接可能意味着与癫痫活动累积影响相关的病理机制。这些发现有助于理解CAE中的行为异常，如执行和注意力功能障碍以及失神发作期间的意识丧失。
