Zhang Zhao, Zhou Xia, Liu Jinping, Qin Lu, Ye Wei, Zheng Jinou
Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi 530021, P.R. China.
Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi 530021, P.R. China.
Exp Ther Med. 2020 Apr;19(4):2901-2912. doi: 10.3892/etm.2020.8551. Epub 2020 Feb 25.
Patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) have been indicated to exhibit abnormal resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) of the cingulate cortex. However, it has remained elusive whether cingulate subregions show different connectivity patterns in TLE. The present study aimed to investigate the differences in rsFC of each cingulate subregion between patients with right-sided TLE (rTLE) and healthy controls (HCs), as well as their association with executive control performance in rTLE. A total of 27 patients with rTLE and 20 age-, sex- and education-matched healthy controls were recruited and all participants underwent resting-state functional MRI and an attention network test for the assessment executive control function. In each hemisphere, the cingulate gyrus (CG) was divided into CG-1 (dorsal area 23; A23d), CG-2 (rostroventral area 24; A24rv), CG-3 (pregenual area 32; A32p), CG-4 (ventral area 23; A23v), CG-5 (caudodorsal area 24; A24cd), CG-6 (caudal area 24; A23c) and CG-7 (subgenual area 32; A32sg). Pearson's correlation analysis was performed to assess the correlation between the altered FCs of the cingulate subregions and clinical variables. In patients with rTLE, the majority of the cingulate subregions exhibited decreased rsFC; this was primarily restricted to the right CG-2, the bilateral CG-6 and the bilateral CG-7. Increased rsFC was only detected in rTLE restricted to the left CG-1. Impairments in executive control efficiency were identified in patients with rTLE in comparison with the HCs. Significant alterations in rsFC between the cingulate subregion and the brain regions were mostly decreased (and some slightly increased), suggesting that FC may potentially have a left-side advantage in patients with rTLE. FC variations of the cingulate subregions were indicated to be specific to rTLE. In addition, increased connectivity in the left CG-1 and left superior frontal gyrus were negatively correlated with executive control performance, suggesting a compensatory mechanism on executive control deficits in pathological conditions. This information on differentially altered FC patterns of the cingulate subregions may provide a deeper understanding of the complex neurological mechanisms and executive control dysfunctions underlying rTLE.
颞叶癫痫（TLE）患者已被证实存在扣带回皮质静息态功能连接（rsFC）异常。然而，扣带回亚区在TLE中是否表现出不同的连接模式仍不明确。本研究旨在探讨右侧TLE（rTLE）患者与健康对照（HCs）之间每个扣带回亚区rsFC的差异，以及它们与rTLE患者执行控制能力的关系。共招募了27例rTLE患者和20例年龄、性别和教育程度匹配的健康对照，所有参与者均接受了静息态功能磁共振成像和注意力网络测试以评估执行控制功能。在每个半球，扣带回（CG）被分为CG-1（背侧23区；A23d）、CG-2（嘴腹侧24区；A24rv）、CG-3（膝前32区；A32p）、CG-4（腹侧23区；A23v）、CG-5（尾背侧24区；A24cd）、CG-6（尾侧24区；A23c）和CG-7（膝下32区；A32sg）。进行Pearson相关分析以评估扣带回亚区FC改变与临床变量之间的相关性。在rTLE患者中，大多数扣带回亚区表现出rsFC降低；这主要局限于右侧CG-2、双侧CG-6和双侧CG-7。仅在局限于左侧CG-1的rTLE中检测到rsFC增加。与HCs相比，rTLE患者存在执行控制效率受损。扣带回亚区与脑区之间rsFC的显著改变大多降低（有些略有增加），表明FC在rTLE患者中可能具有左侧优势。扣带回亚区的FC变化被表明是rTLE特有的。此外，左侧CG-1和左侧额上回连接性增加与执行控制能力呈负相关，提示在病理状态下对执行控制缺陷的一种代偿机制。扣带回亚区FC模式差异改变的这些信息可能有助于更深入地理解rTLE潜在的复杂神经机制和执行控制功能障碍。
