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. 2023 Mar 23:17:1011283.
doi: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1011283. eCollection 2023.

Abnormal metabolic connectivity in default mode network of right temporal lobe epilepsy

Xiaoyang Wang  1   2 , Dandan Lin  3 , Chunlei Zhao  1   2 , Hui Li  1 , Liyuan Fu  1   2 , Zhifeng Huang  1   2 , Shangwen Xu  1   2
Affiliations

Abnormal metabolic connectivity in default mode network of right temporal lobe epilepsy

Xiaoyang Wang et al. Front Neurosci. .

Abstract

Aims: Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is a common neurological disorder associated with the dysfunction of the default mode network (DMN). Metabolic connectivity measured by 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Computed Tomography (18F-FDG PET) has been widely used to assess cumulative energy consumption and provide valuable insights into the pathophysiology of TLE. However, the metabolic connectivity mechanism of DMN in TLE is far from fully elucidated. The present study investigated the metabolic connectivity mechanism of DMN in TLE using 18F-FDG PET.

Method: Participants included 40 TLE patients and 41 health controls (HC) who were age- and gender-matched. A weighted undirected metabolic network of each group was constructed based on 14 primary volumes of interest (VOIs) in the DMN, in which Pearson's correlation coefficients between each pair-wise of the VOIs were calculated in an inter-subject manner. Graph theoretic analysis was then performed to analyze both global (global efficiency and the characteristic path length) and regional (nodal efficiency and degree centrality) network properties.

Results: Metabolic connectivity in DMN showed that regionally networks changed in the TLE group, including bilateral posterior cingulate gyrus, right inferior parietal gyrus, right angular gyrus, and left precuneus. Besides, significantly decreased (P < 0.05, FDR corrected) metabolic connections of DMN in the TLE group were revealed, containing bilateral hippocampus, bilateral posterior cingulate gyrus, bilateral angular gyrus, right medial of superior frontal gyrus, and left inferior parietal gyrus.

Conclusion: Taken together, the present study demonstrated the abnormal metabolic connectivity in DMN of TLE, which might provide further insights into the understanding the dysfunction mechanism and promote the treatment for TLE patients.

Keywords: 18F-FDG PET; TLE; default mode network; graph theory; metabolic connectivity.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Metabolic correlation network of the TLE and HC groups. The left panel was the connectivity matrix (A) and connectivity graph (C) of the HC group. The left panel was the connectivity matrix (B) and connectivity graph (D) of the TLE group. The nodes of VOIs by blue dots and connection strength is represented by the thickness of each line connecting two nodes. TLE, temporal lobe epilepsy; HC, healthy control.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Regional graph theoretic measures. Differences of nodal efficiency (A) and degree centrality (B) for each node were evaluated between the TLE and HC group. The differences of nodes in nodal efficiency (C) and degree centrality (D) between the TLE and HC groups were displayed in the MNI space. The size of nodes represents difference between the TLE and HC groups, and the color of nodes and the color bar represent statistical significance. *Statistically significant (q < 0.05, FDR corrected). SFGmed, superior frontal gyrus, medial; ORBsupmed, superior frontal gyrus, medial orbital; PCG, posterior cingulate gyrus; HIP, inferior parietal gyrus; IPL, inferior parietal gyrus; ANG, angular gyrus; PCUN, precuneus; L, left; R, right.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Significantly decreased metabolic connectivity in the TLE groups. (A) The seven significantly decreased metabolic connections in the TLE groups compared with the HC group (permutation test, P < 0.05 with FDR correction). Statistical significance of the reduction of metabolic connectivity in the TLE group was found and represented by lower triangular matrix. (B) The anatomical distribution of significantly different metabolic connections in pairwise VOIs between the TLE and HC groups.
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