PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Widjaja, E.
AU  - Zamyadi, M.
AU  - Raybaud, C.
AU  - Snead, O.C.
AU  - Smith, M.L.
TI  - Abnormal Functional Network Connectivity among Resting-State Networks in Children with Frontal Lobe Epilepsy
AID  - 10.3174/ajnr.A3608
DP  - 2013 Dec 01
TA  - American Journal of Neuroradiology
PG  - 2386--2392
VI  - 34
IP  - 12
4099  - http://www.ajnr.org/content/34/12/2386.short
4100  - http://www.ajnr.org/content/34/12/2386.full
SO  - Am. J. Neuroradiol.2013 Dec 01; 34
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Epilepsy is considered a disorder of neural networks. The aims of this study were to assess functional connectivity within resting-state networks and functional network connectivity across resting-state networks by use of resting-state fMRI in children with frontal lobe epilepsy and to relate changes in resting-state networks with neuropsychological function. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifteen patients with frontal lobe epilepsy and normal MR imaging and 14 healthy control subjects were recruited. Spatial independent component analysis was used to identify the resting-state networks, including frontal, attention, default mode network, sensorimotor, visual, and auditory networks. The Z-maps of resting-state networks were compared between patients and control subjects. The relation between abnormal connectivity and neuropsychological function was assessed. Correlations from all pair-wise combinations of independent components were performed for each group and compared between groups. RESULTS: The frontal network was the only network that showed reduced connectivity in patients relative to control subjects. The remaining 5 networks demonstrated both reduced and increased functional connectivity within resting-state networks in patients. There was a weak association between connectivity in frontal network and executive function (P = .029) and a significant association between sensorimotor network and fine motor function (P = .004). Control subjects had 79 pair-wise independent components that showed significant temporal coherence across all resting-state networks except for default mode network–auditory network. Patients had 66 pairs of independent components that showed significant temporal coherence across all resting-state networks. Group comparison showed reduced functional network connectivity between default mode network–attention, frontal-sensorimotor, and frontal-visual networks and increased functional network connectivity between frontal-attention, default mode network–sensorimotor, and frontal-visual networks in patients relative to control subjects. CONCLUSIONS: We found abnormal functional connectivity within and across resting-state networks in children with frontal lobe epilepsy. Impairment in functional connectivity was associated with impaired neuropsychological function. FLEfrontal lobe epilepsyICindependent componentICAindependent component analysisDMNdefault mode networkRSNresting-state networkTLEtemporal lobe epilepsyFNCfunctional network connectivityDKEFSDelis-Kaplan Executive Function System