Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Ave, Cincinnati, OH, 45229, USA.
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, 3230 Eden Ave., Cincinnati, OH, 45267, USA.
Brain Imaging Behav. 2021 Feb;15(1):166-176. doi: 10.1007/s11682-019-00243-z.
Working memory deficits are common in youth with epilepsy and consistently associated with long-term negative outcomes. Existing research on the neural basis of working memory disruptions in pediatric epilepsy is limited. The question of whether differences in the functional connectivity of neural networks underlie working memory disruptions in pediatric patients with epilepsy remains unanswered. A total of 49 adolescents between the ages of 13-17 years participated in this study. Twenty-nine adolescents had confirmed epilepsy (n = 17 generalized epilepsy, n = 6 localization-related, n = 6 unclassified). The control group included 20 healthy adolescents. A total of 10-min resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging was obtained for all participants. NeuroSynth-derived regions of interest were used as nodes that comprise working memory neural networks. Group differences in resting state functional connectivity were examined between adolescents with epilepsy and controls. Functional connectivity was computed as the temporal correlation of functional magnetic resonance imaging signal fluctuations between any two regions of interest. Compared to controls, adolescents in the epilepsy group demonstrated both hypoconnectivity and hyperconnectivity in cortical areas that map onto fronto-parietal and cingulo-opercular networks, as well as cerebellar regions. Functional connectivity between pairs of regions of interest was also significantly associated with behavioral measures of working memory across epilepsy and control groups. This study demonstrates that the presence of abnormal patterns in resting state neural network connectivity may underlie the working memory disruptions that frequently characterize the neurocognitive profile of youth with epilepsy.
工作记忆缺陷在青少年癫痫患者中很常见，并且与长期的负面结果密切相关。现有的关于儿科癫痫患者工作记忆障碍的神经基础的研究非常有限。儿科癫痫患者的神经网络功能连接是否存在差异，从而导致工作记忆障碍，这个问题仍未得到解答。共有 49 名 13-17 岁的青少年参与了这项研究。其中 29 名青少年被确诊患有癫痫（n=17 例全身性癫痫，n=6 例局灶性相关癫痫，n=6 例未分类癫痫）。对照组包括 20 名健康青少年。所有参与者都进行了总共 10 分钟的静息态功能磁共振成像。使用 NeuroSynth 衍生的感兴趣区作为节点，这些节点构成了工作记忆神经网络。研究人员在癫痫青少年组和对照组之间检查了静息态功能连接的差异。功能连接是通过对任意两个感兴趣区之间的功能磁共振成像信号波动的时间相关性进行计算的。与对照组相比，癫痫组青少年在映射到额顶和扣带回网络以及小脑区域的皮质区域中表现出低连通性和高连通性。癫痫组和对照组的功能连接与工作记忆的行为测量也显著相关。这项研究表明，静息态神经网络连接中存在异常模式可能是导致青少年癫痫患者神经认知特征中经常出现的工作记忆障碍的原因。
