Department of Neurology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, No. 37 GuoXue Alley, Chengdu, 610041, China.
Department of Radiology, Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), West China Hospital, Sichuan University, No. 37 GuoXue Alley, Chengdu, 610041, China.
Epilepsy Res. 2021 Feb;170:106548. doi: 10.1016/j.eplepsyres.2021.106548. Epub 2021 Jan 5.
Periventricular nodular heterotopia (PNH) is characterized by disabled neural migration and is usually associated with epilepsy. Despite awareness of PNH-related epilepsy, little is known about the brain-level underlying functional neural bases. Thus, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to examine the neurobiology of 42 subjects with PNH-related epilepsy and 42 sex- and age-matched healthy controls. Measurements of functional connectivity (FC) and whole-brain graph theory analysis of data in the resting state were performed to assess neurological organization and topology. PNH patients exhibited significantly higher FC in the parietal lobe, cingulum and thalamus, as well as significantly lower FC in frontoparietal, hippocampal, and precentral regions. Graph theory analysis identified no significant differences between patients and controls, while patients showed lower network global efficiency in the limbic and cerebellum network and occipital cortex. Seed-based FC analysis confirmed disruption of activities and interregional connectivity in remote epileptic networks of patients, which may point to underlying pathological mechanisms. The cerebellum and limbic system of patients showed altered topology, suggesting that these regions or hubs may contribute to whole-brain circuits in PNH and epilepsy.
室周结节性异位（PNH）的特征是神经迁移障碍，通常与癫痫有关。尽管人们已经意识到 PNH 相关癫痫，但对于其大脑层面的潜在功能神经基础却知之甚少。因此，我们使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）检查了 42 名 PNH 相关癫痫患者和 42 名性别和年龄匹配的健康对照者的神经生物学特征。我们对静息状态下的数据进行了功能连接（FC）和全脑图论分析，以评估神经组织和拓扑结构。结果显示，PNH 患者的顶叶、扣带回和丘脑的 FC 明显升高，而额顶叶、海马和中央前区的 FC 明显降低。图论分析未发现患者和对照组之间存在显著差异，而患者的边缘网络和小脑网络以及枕叶皮质的网络全局效率较低。基于种子的 FC 分析证实了患者癫痫远程网络活动和区域间连接的中断，这可能指向潜在的病理机制。患者的小脑和边缘系统表现出拓扑结构的改变，表明这些区域或中枢可能对 PNH 和癫痫的全脑回路有贡献。
