Thalamic nuclei volumes and network in juvenile myoclonic epilepsy

The aim of this study was to investigate the alterations of thalamic nuclei volumes and intrinsic thalamic networks in patients with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) compared to healthy controls.

We enrolled 50 patients with JME and 42 healthy controls. We obtained structural volumes of the individual thalamic nuclei based on T1-weighted imaging and performed intrinsic thalamic network analysis using graph theoretical analysis. We analyzed the differences of thalamic nuclei volumes and intrinsic thalamic networks between the patients with JME and healthy controls.

In the patients with JME, there were significant alterations of thalamic nuclei volumes compared to healthy controls. Right laterodorsal and left suprageniculate nuclei volumes were significantly increased (0.0019% vs 0.0014%, P < .0001; 0.0011% vs 0.0008%, P = .0006, respectively), whereas left ventral posterolateral, left ventromedial, and left pulvinar inferior nuclei volumes (0.0572% vs 0.0664%, P = .0001; 0.0013% vs 0.0015%, P = .0002; 0.0120% vs 0.0140%, P < .0001, respectively) were decreased in the patients with JME. Furthermore, the intrinsic thalamic network of the patients with JME was significantly different from that of the healthy controls. The modularity in the patients with JME was significantly increased over that in healthy controls (0.0785 vs 0.0212, P = .039).

We found that there were significant alterations of thalamic nuclei volumes and intrinsic thalamic networks in patients with JME compared to healthy controls. These findings might contribute to the underlying pathogenesis of in JME.