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Deep Cerebellar Nuclei Functional Connectivity with Cerebral Cortex in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy With and Without Focal to Bilateral Tonic–Clonic Seizures: a Resting-State fMRI Study

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Abstract

We aimed to explore the altered functional connectivity patterns within cerebello-cerebral circuits in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients with and without focal to bilateral tonic–clonic seizures (FBTCS). Forty-two patients with unilateral TLE (21 with and 21 without FBTCS) and 22 healthy controls were recruited. We chose deep cerebellar nuclei as seed regions, calculated static and dynamic functional connectivity (sFC and dFC) in the patients with and without FBTCS and healthy controls, and compared sFC and dFC among the three groups. Correlation analyses were used to assess relationships between the significantly altered imaging features and patient clinical parameters. Compared to the group without FBTCS, the FBTCS group showed decreased sFC between the right dentate nuclei and left hemisphere regions including the middle frontal gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, superior medial frontal gyrus and posterior cingulate gyrus, and significantly increased dFC between the right interposed nuclei and contralateral precuneus. Relative to HCs, the FBTCS group demonstrated prominently decreased sFC between the right dentate nuclei and left middle frontal gyrus. No significant correlations between the altered imaging features and patient clinical parameters were observed. Our results suggest that the disrupted cerebello-cerebral FC might be related to cognitive impairment, epileptogenesis, and propagation of epileptic activities in patients with FBTCS.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Professor Wei Ye for his contribution to the imaging data collection and all patients for their participation in the study. The authors also would like to express their gratitude to EditSprings (https://www.editsprings.com/) for the expert linguistic services provided.

Funding

The research funding for this subject was provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81560223) and by the Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi Province (2018GXNSFAA050149).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China

    Liluo Nie, Yanchun Jiang, Zongxia Lv, Xiaomin Pang, Xiulin Liang, Weiwei Chang, Jian Li & Jinou Zheng

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Correspondence to Jinou Zheng.

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Nie, L., Jiang, Y., Lv, Z. et al. Deep Cerebellar Nuclei Functional Connectivity with Cerebral Cortex in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy With and Without Focal to Bilateral Tonic–Clonic Seizures: a Resting-State fMRI Study. Cerebellum 21, 253–263 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12311-021-01266-3

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