The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation, School of life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
School of Computer Science, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu, China.
Hum Brain Mapp. 2021 Aug 1;42(11):3440-3449. doi: 10.1002/hbm.25444. Epub 2021 Apr 8.
The aberrant thalamocortical pathways of epilepsy have been detected recently, while its underlying effects on epilepsy are still not well understood. Exploring pathoglytic changes in two important thalamocortical pathways, that is, the basal ganglia (BG)-thalamocortical and the cerebellum-thalamocortical pathways, in people with idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE), could deepen our understanding on the pathological mechanism of this disease. These two pathways were reconstructed and investigated in this study by combining diffusion and functional MRI. Both pathways showed connectivity changes with the perception and cognition systems in patients. Consistent functional connectivity (FC) changes were observed mainly in perception regions, revealing the aberrant integration of sensorimotor and visual information in IGE. The pathway-specific FC alterations in high-order regions give neuroimaging evidence of the neural mechanisms of cognitive impairment and epileptic activities in IGE. Abnormal functional and structural integration of cerebellum, basal ganglia and thalamus could result in an imbalance of inhibition and excitability in brain systems of IGE. This study located the regulated cortical regions of BG and cerebellum which been affected in IGE, established possible links between the neuroimaging findings and epileptic symptoms, and enriched the understanding of the regulatory effects of BG and cerebellum on epilepsy.
最近已经检测到癫痫的异常丘脑皮质通路，但其对癫痫的潜在影响仍未被很好地理解。探索特发性全面性癫痫（IGE）患者两条重要的丘脑皮质通路（基底节-丘脑皮质和小脑-丘脑皮质通路）的病理变化，可能会加深我们对这种疾病病理机制的理解。本研究通过结合弥散和功能磁共振成像，对这两条通路进行了重建和研究。两条通路都显示出与患者感知和认知系统的连接变化。在感知区域观察到一致的功能连接（FC）变化，揭示了 IGE 中感觉运动和视觉信息的异常整合。高级区域的通路特异性 FC 改变为 IGE 中认知障碍和癫痫活动的神经机制提供了神经影像学证据。小脑、基底节和丘脑的异常功能和结构整合可能导致 IGE 大脑系统中抑制和兴奋性失衡。本研究定位了 IGE 中受影响的基底节和小脑调节的皮质区域，建立了神经影像学发现与癫痫症状之间的可能联系，并丰富了对基底节和小脑对癫痫的调节作用的理解。
