Reduced structural connectivity between sensorimotor and language areas in rolandic epilepsy

Rolandic epilepsy (RE) is a childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal (rolandic) spikes, that is increasingly associated with language impairment. In this study, we tested for a white matter (connectivity) correlate, employing diffusion weighted MRI and language testing. Twenty-three children with RE a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2013-12, Vol.8 (12), p.e83568-e83568
Main Authors: Besseling, René M H, Jansen, Jacobus F A, Overvliet, Geke M, van der Kruijs, Sylvie J M, Ebus, Saskia C M, de Louw, Anton, Hofman, Paul A M, Vles, Johannes S H, Aldenkamp, Albert P, Backes, Walter H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aberration
Adolescent
Age
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimers disease
Anisotropy
Behavior disorders
Brain
Case-Control Studies
Child
Children
Comparative analysis
Cortex
Diffusion
Diffusion Tensor Imaging
Dyslexia
Epilepsy
Epilepsy, Rolandic - pathology
Epilepsy, Rolandic - physiopathology
Female
Frontal gyrus
Hemispheric laterality
Humans
Image processing
Impairment
Language
Language disorders
Language Tests
Localization
Magnetic resonance imaging
Male
Mental health
Neural networks
Neurology
Neurosciences
Patients
Segmentation
Semiotics
Sensorimotor Cortex - pathology
Sensorimotor Cortex - physiopathology
Sensorimotor system
Substantia alba
Test procedures
White Matter - pathology
White Matter - physiopathology
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Summary:Rolandic epilepsy (RE) is a childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal (rolandic) spikes, that is increasingly associated with language impairment. In this study, we tested for a white matter (connectivity) correlate, employing diffusion weighted MRI and language testing. Twenty-three children with RE and 23 matched controls (age: 8-14 years) underwent structural (T1-weighted) and diffusion-weighted MRI (b = 1200 s/mm(2), 66 gradient directions) at 3T, as well as neuropsychological language testing. Combining tractography and a cortical segmentation derived from the T1-scan, the rolandic tract were reconstructed (pre- and postcentral gyri), and tract fractional anisotropy (FA) values were compared between patients and controls. Aberrant tracts were tested for correlations with language performance. Several reductions of tract FA were found in patients compared to controls, mostly in the left hemisphere; the most significant effects involved the left inferior frontal (p = 0.005) and supramarginal (p = 0.004) gyrus. In the patient group, lower tract FA values were correlated with lower language performance, among others for the connection between the left postcentral and inferior frontal gyrus (p = 0.043, R = 0.43). In RE, structural connectivity is reduced for several connections involving the rolandic regions, from which the epileptiform activity originates. Most of these aberrant tracts involve the left (typically language mediating) hemisphere, notably the pars opercularis of the inferior frontal gyrus (Broca's area) and the supramarginal gyrus (Wernicke's area). For the former, reduced language performance for lower tract FA was found in the patients. These findings provide a first microstructural white matter correlate for language impairment in RE.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0083568