Alterations of hubs related to disease progression in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy: a study on topological properties of brain networks / 中华神经科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the alterations of brain functional network related to disease progression in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and the potential neural mechanism of executive dysfunction.Methods:Nineteen temporal lobe epilepsy patients with a disease course of less than or equal to 5 years (TLE-SD group) and 24 temporal lobe epilepsy patients with a disease course of more than 5 years (TLE-LD group) were recruited from the Epilepsy Clinic of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University from December 2019 to December 2021. At the same time, 21 healthy control individuals (healthy control group) were recruited from the society and matched with gender, age, and education level. All subjects were evaluated demographic and clinical data, and performed resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) and attention network test (ANT). The topological properties of functional brain network of 3 groups of subjects were calculated using graph theory, and then the hubs were determined. Then the inter-group comparison of hubs properties was carried out, and the correlation analysis with executive control function was performed.Results:The distribution pattern of hub nodes in TLE-SD patients was changed. Compared with the TLE-LD and healthy control groups, the TLE-SD group significantly increased the nodal degree values in brain regions such as the ventrolateral area of the left middle frontal gyrus, the left anterior central gyrus (upper limb area), the cephalic and caudal areas of the left parietal lobule, as well as the inner parietal lobe area, the caudal side of the right parietal lobule, and the right lateral occipital cortex. The nodal values of the brain areas such as the lateral and parietal inner area, the caudal side of the right upper upper lobule, and the right lateral occipital cortex were significantly increased. TLE-SD patients had a significant increase in the middle of the right upper frontal gyrus and the head of the left upper upper lobule. The node efficiency was significantly lower than that of TLE-LD patients, and the node efficiency in the middle of the right upper frontal gyrus was significantly lower than that of the healthy control group. The node network attributes of the left upper lobe were positively correlated with the execution control efficiency, and negatively correlated with the orientation efficiency. No significant difference was detected between TLE-LD patients and healthy controls.Conclusions:In TLE patients, the hubs in the middle of the right superior frontal gyrus were first damaged, and new hubs appeared in the dorsal attention network, the left anterior central gyrus and the right occipital lobe and were overloaded. With the progression of the disease, hubs tended to be redistributed to normality. The left superior parietal lobule may play an important role in the impairment of executive control function in TLE patients.