Alterations in the functional brain network in a rat model of epileptogenesis: A longitudinal resting state fMRI study

Publication date: 15 November 2019Source: NeuroImage, Volume 202Author(s): Emma Christiaen, Marie-Gabrielle Goossens, Robrecht Raedt, Benedicte Descamps, Lars Emil Larsen, Erine Craey, Evelien Carrette, Kristl Vonck, Paul Boon, Christian VanhoveAbstractEpilepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Electrophysiological and neuroimaging studies in patients with epilepsy suggest that abnormal functional brain networks play a role in the development of epilepsy, i.e. epileptogenesis, resulting in the generation of spontaneous seizures and cognitive impairment. In this longitudinal study, we investigated changes in functional brain networks during epileptogenesis in the intraperitoneal kainic acid (IPKA) rat model of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) and graph theory. Additionally, we investigated whether these changes are related to the frequency of occurrence of spontaneous epileptic seizures in the chronic phase of epilepsy. Using a 7T MRI system, rsfMRI images were acquired under medetomidine anaesthesia before and 1, 3, 6, 10 and 16 weeks after status epilepticus (SE) induction in 20 IPKA animals and 7 healthy control animals. To obtain a functional network, correlation between fMRI time series of 38 regions of interest (ROIs) was calculated. Then, several graph theoretical network measures were calculated to describe and quantify the network changes. At least 17 weeks post-SE, ...
Source: NeuroImage - Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research