title: Disrupted topological properties of brain white matter networks in left temporal lobe epilepsy: a diffusion tensor imaging study.
abstract: Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE) is the most common drug-refractory focal epilepsy in adults. Although previous functional and morphological studies have revealed abnormalities in the brain networks of mTLE, the topological organization of the brain white matter (WM) networks in mTLE patients is still ambiguous. In this study, we constructed brain WM networks for 14 left mTLE patients and 22 age- and gender-matched normal controls using diffusion tensor tractography and estimated the alterations of network properties in the mTLE brain networks using graph theoretical analysis. We found that networks for both the mTLE patients and the controls exhibited prominent small-world properties, suggesting a balanced topology of integration and segregation. However, the brain WM networks of mTLE patients showed a significant increased characteristic path length but significant decreased global efficiency, which indicate a disruption in the organization of the brain WM networks in mTLE patients. Moreover, we found significant between-group differences in the nodal properties in several brain regions, such as the left superior temporal gyrus, left hippocampus, the right occipital and right temporal cortices. The robustness analysis showed that the results were likely to be consistent for the networks constructed with different definitions of node and edge weight. Taken together, our findings may suggest an adverse effect of epileptic seizures on the organization of large-scale brain WM networks in mTLE patients.
authors.affiliation: Center for the Study of Applied Psychology, Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science of Guangdong Province, School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, PR China.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Image Center, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, PR China.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: Center for the Study of Applied Psychology, Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science of Guangdong Province, School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, PR China.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Image Center, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, PR China.
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Center for the Study of Applied Psychology, Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science of Guangdong Province, School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, PR China.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Center for the Study of Applied Psychology, Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science of Guangdong Province, School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, PR China.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Image Center, Guangdong 999 Brain Hospital, Guangzhou 510510, PR China.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, PR China.
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Image Center, Guangdong 999 Brain Hospital, Guangzhou 510510, PR China. Electronic address: wangwensheng36@163.com.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Center for the Study of Applied Psychology, Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science of Guangdong Province, School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, PR China. Electronic address: ruiwang.huang@gmail.com.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D066127:White Matter / Q000473:pathology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: connectivity; diffusion tensor imaging; graph theory; temporal lobe epilepsy