Structural–functional coupling abnormalities in temporal lobe epilepsy

Frontiers in Neuroscience

Neuroscience

Xiaoting Huang¹  Danni Guo¹  Yangsa Du¹  Chunyao Zhou²  Fangfang Xie³ 

[1] Department of Neurology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China;Department of Neurosurgery, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China;Department of Radiology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China;

关键词: functional connectivity;    structural connectivity;    temporal lobe epilepsy;    structural–functional coupling;    human brain;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fnins.2023.1272514

 received in 2023-08-04, accepted in 2023-10-04,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundNowadays, researchers are using advanced multimodal neuroimaging techniques to construct the brain network connectome to elucidate the complex relationship among the networks of brain functions and structure. The objective of this study was to evaluate the coupling of structural connectivity (SC) and functional connectivity (FC) in the entire brain of healthy controls (HCs), and to investigate modifications in SC–FC coupling in individuals suffering from temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE).MethodsWe evaluated 65 patients with TLE matched for age and gender with 48 healthy controls. The SC–FC coupling between regions was determined, based on which whole-brain nodes were clustered. Differences in the coupling among the three groups of nodes were compared. To further validate the results obtained, the within-cluster coupling indices of the three groups were compared to determine the inter-group differences.ResultsNodes were divided into five clusters. Cluster 1 was primarily located in the limbic system (n = 9/27), whereas cluster 5 was mainly within the visual network (n = 12/29). By comparing average cluster SC–FC coupling in each cluster of the three groups, we identified marked discrepancies within the three cohorts in Cluster 3 (p = 0.001), Cluster 4 (p < 0.001), and Cluster 5 (p < 0.001). Post-hoc analysis revealed that the SC–FC coupling strengths in LTLE and RTLE were significantly lower than that in HCs in Cluster 3 (PL = 0.001/PR = 0.003), Cluster 4 (PL = 0.001/PR < 0.001), and Cluster 5 (PL < 0.001/PR < 0.001). We also observed that the within-cluster SC–FC coupling in cluster 5 of left- and right TLE was significantly lower than in HCs (PL = 0.0001, PR = 0.0005).ConclusionThe SC and FC are inconsistently coupled across the brain with spatial heterogeneity. In the fifth cluster with the highest degree of coupling in HCs, the average SC–FC coupling index of individuals with TLE was notably less than that of HCs, manifesting that brain regions with high coupling may be more delicate and prone to pathological disruption.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Huang, Du, Guo, Xie and Zhou.