Giulia Varotto1, Silvana Franceschetti2, Davide Caputo1, Elisa Visani1, Laura Canafoglia1, Elena Freri3, Francesca Ragona3, Giuliano Avanzini1, Ferruccio Panzica1. 1. Department of Neurophysiopathology, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Via Celoria 11, 20133 Milano, Italy. 2. Department of Neurophysiopathology, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Via Celoria 11, 20133 Milano, Italy. Electronic address: silvana.franceschetti@istituto-besta.it. 3. Department of Paediatric Neuroscience, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Via Celoria 11, 20133 Milano, Italy.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the changes in EEG connectivity in children with the typical presentation of benign epilepsy with centro-temporal spikes (BECTS). METHODS: We compared awake and spindle-sleep EEG recordings obtained by a standard electrode array in patients with lateralised (10 Right, 9 Left-BECTS) or bilateral spikes (10 MF-BECTS) and in 17 age-matched controls. We analysed EEG activity using partial directed coherence, an estimator of connectivity based on the multivariate autoregressive models and calculated in- and out-degrees, strength, clustering coefficient and betweenness centrality. RESULTS: In comparison with the controls, the awake EEG recordings of the patients with lateralised BECTS showed a minimal increase in out-degrees on F4 and F3. The greater differences, found during sleep, included significant reductions in both in- and out-degrees and strength in all of the patient groups, but in T4 or T3 showing increased out-degrees and strength in Right and Left-BECTS. Betweenness centrality was significantly reduced on C3 and C4 in the patients with MF-BECTS. CONCLUSIONS: Our observations suggest that the main finding in BECTS patients is widely reduced local connectivity. SIGNIFICANCE: The network changes in BECTS can be interpreted as a permissive condition occurring in a developmental window that predisposes to seizure generation during spindle-sleep.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the changes in EEG connectivity in children with the typical presentation of benign epilepsy with centro-temporal spikes (BECTS). METHODS: We compared awake and spindle-sleep EEG recordings obtained by a standard electrode array in patients with lateralised (10 Right, 9 Left-BECTS) or bilateral spikes (10 MF-BECTS) and in 17 age-matched controls. We analysed EEG activity using partial directed coherence, an estimator of connectivity based on the multivariate autoregressive models and calculated in- and out-degrees, strength, clustering coefficient and betweenness centrality. RESULTS: In comparison with the controls, the awake EEG recordings of the patients with lateralised BECTS showed a minimal increase in out-degrees on F4 and F3. The greater differences, found during sleep, included significant reductions in both in- and out-degrees and strength in all of the patient groups, but in T4 or T3 showing increased out-degrees and strength in Right and Left-BECTS. Betweenness centrality was significantly reduced on C3 and C4 in the patients with MF-BECTS. CONCLUSIONS: Our observations suggest that the main finding in BECTSpatients is widely reduced local connectivity. SIGNIFICANCE: The network changes in BECTS can be interpreted as a permissive condition occurring in a developmental window that predisposes to seizure generation during spindle-sleep.
Authors: Victor Hugo Batista Tsukahara; Jordão Natal de Oliveira Júnior; Vitor Bruno de Oliveira Barth; Jasiara Carla de Oliveira; Vinicius Rosa Cota; Carlos Dias Maciel Journal: Front Neural Circuits Date: 2022-08-10 Impact factor: 3.342