Abstract
Objective: We investigated interictal EEG activity in patients with childhood absence seizures with the aim of detecting markers of network defects generating "idiopathic" hyperexcitability in this form of epilepsy. Methods: We included 11 drug-naïve patients with childhood absence epilepsy (CAE), and 11 age matched controls (CTRL). We analyzed interictal EEG using partial directed coherence (PDC), a connectivity estimator in frequency domain based on autoregressive multivariate (MVAR) modeling giving the advantage of indicating the direction and strength of the interactions between multiple variables. Results: Our results revealed the presence of an abnormal cortico-cortical network occurring in the interictal condition in CAE and involving a large span of frequencies, with prominence in the alpha band; the most evident finding was a highly significant increase of out-going connectivity involving frontal and central cortical areas in CAE patients compared to CTRL subjects. Conclusions: Our observation indicates that, in interictal conditions, a distorted network characterizes CAE, and a hyperconnected network is already detectable under resting conditions in the delta, theta and alpha bands. Significance: The increased interictal EEG connectivity demonstrated here provides support for a persistent abnormal relationship between the thalamus and a hyperexcitable cortex outside the ictal phase.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1130-1137 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Clinical Neurophysiology |
Volume | 127 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Feb 1 2016 |
Keywords
- Absence epilepsy
- EEG
- Effective connectivity
- PDC
- Resting state
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Clinical Neurology
- Neurology
- Physiology (medical)
- Sensory Systems