Topological abnormality of structural covariance network in MRI-negative frontal lobe epilepsy

Yin Liu; Quanji Li; Dali Yi; Junhong Duan; Qingxia Zhang; Yunchen Huang; Haibo He; Yunjie Liao; Zhi Song; Lingling Deng; Wei Wang; Ding Liu

doi:10.3389/fnins.2023.1136110

Topological abnormality of structural covariance network in MRI-negative frontal lobe epilepsy

Front Neurosci. 2023 May 5:17:1136110. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1136110. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yin Liu¹, Quanji Li², Dali Yi¹, Junhong Duan¹, Qingxia Zhang², Yunchen Huang¹, Haibo He¹, Yunjie Liao¹, Zhi Song², Lingling Deng³, Wei Wang¹, Ding Liu²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiology, The Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
² Department of Neurology, The Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
³ Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital, University of South China, Hengyang, China.

Abstract

Background: Frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE) is the second most common type of focal epilepsy, however, imaging studies of FLE have been far less than Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and the structural findings were not consistent in previous literature.

Object: Investigate the changes in cortical thickness in patients with FLE and the alteration of the structural covariance networks (SCNs) of cortical thickness with graph-theory.

Method: Thirty patients with FLE (18 males/12 females; 28.33 ± 11.81 years) and 27 demographically matched controls (15 males/12 females; 29.22 ± 9.73 years) were included in this study with high-resolution structural brain MRI scans. The cortical thickness was calculated, and structural covariance network (SCN) of cortical thickness were reconstructed using 68 × 68 matrix and analyzed with graph-theory approach.

Result: Cortical thickness was not significantly different between two groups, but path length and node betweenness were significantly increased in patients with FLE, and the regional network alterations were significantly changed in right precentral gyrus and right temporal pole (FDR corrected, p < 0.05). Comparing to HC group, network hubs were decreased and shifted away from frontal lobe.

Conclusion: The topological properties of cortical thickness covariance network were significantly altered in patients with FLE, even without obvious surface-based morphological damage. Graph-theory based SCN analysis may provide sensitive neuroanatomical biomarkers for FLE.

Keywords: cortical thickness; default mode network (DMN); frontal lobe epilepsy; graph theory; structural covariance network.