title: Altered resting state functional network connectivity in children absence epilepsy.
abstract: Altered functional connectivity has been associated with the influence of epileptic activity. Abnormalities in connectivity, particularly in dorsal attention (DAN), salience (SN) and default mode (DMN) networks, might contribute to the loss of consciousness during seizures and cognitive deficits in patients with children absence epilepsy (CAE). The objective of the present study was to identify whether the functional network connectivity (FNC) is changed between patients with CAE and healthy controls. Using independent component analysis, twelve resting state networks (RSNs) were identified in resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging data sets in eighteen CAE patients and twenty-one healthy controls. Analyses of the group differences in FNC strength were conducted, controlling for age and gender effects. The findings showed that some functional networks were clustered into two subgroups, correlated within subgroups and antagonized with each other. Compared with the controls, patients with CAE demonstrated abnormal FNC strength among three networks: DMN, DAN and SN. In addition, the antagonism of two subgroups was altered. These results might reflect the underlying neuronal functional impairment or altered integration among these RSNs in CAE, suggesting that the abnormal functional connectivity is likely to imply the pathological mechanism associated with the accumulative influence of epileptic activity. These findings contribute to the understanding of the behavior abnormality in CAE, such as disturbed executive and attentional functions and the loss of consciousness during absence seizures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, The Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical College, Haikou, China.
authors.forename: Qifu
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, Center for Information in BioMedicine, High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China; Department of Radiology, Taishan Medical University, Taian 271016, China.
authors.forename: Weifang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, The Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical College, Haikou, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoping
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, The Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical College, Haikou, China.
authors.forename: Zhibin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
authors.forename: Tianhua
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
authors.forename: Qiyong
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China. Electronic address: zhoudong66@yahoo.de.
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, Center for Information in BioMedicine, High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China. Electronic address: chengluo@uestc.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Cheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, Center for Information in BioMedicine, High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China.
authors.forename: Dezhong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yao
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004832:Epilepsy, Absence / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D012146:Rest / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Absence epilepsy; Antagonism; Functional network connectivity; Independent component analysis; Resting state fMRI