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Updated: Jul 24, 2025

Network Analysis of Foramen Ovale Electrode Recordings in Drug-resistant Temporal Lobe Epilepsy Patients
Published on: December 18, 2016
Functional and structural networks decoupling in generalized tonic-clonic seizures and its reorganization by drugs
Haonan Pei1,2, Shuai Ma1,2,3, Wei Yan1,2
1The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
Objective:
To investigate potential functional and structural large-scale network disturbances in untreated patients with generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS) and the effects of antiseizure drugs.
Methods:
In this study, 41 patients with GTCS, comprising 21 untreated patients and 20 patients who received antiseizure medications (ASMs), and 29 healthy controls were recruited to construct large-scale brain networks based on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging. Structural and functional connectivity and network-level weighted correlation probability (NWCP) were further investigated to identify network features that corresponded to response to ASMs.
Results:
Untreated patients showed more extensive enhancement of functional and structural connections than controls. Specifically, we observed abnormally enhanced connections between the default mode network (DMN) and the frontal-parietal network. In addition, treated patients showed similar functional connection strength to that of the control group. However, all patients exhibited similar structural network alterations. Moreover, the NWCP value was lower for connections within the DMN and between the DMN and other networks in the untreated patients; receiving ASMs could reverse this pattern.
Significance:
Our study identified alterations in structural and functional connectivity in patients with GTCS. The influence of ASMs may be more noticeable within the functional network; moreover, abnormalities in both the functional and structural coupling state may be improved by ASM treatment. Therefore, the coupling state of structural and functional connectivity may be used as an indicator of the efficacy of ASMs.
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