Reading, listening and memory-related brain activity in children with early-stage temporal lobe epilepsy of unknown cause-an fMRI study.

Background And Aims: The changes in functional brain organization associated with paediatric epilepsy are largely unknown. Since children with epilepsy are at risk of developing learning difficulties even before or shortly after the onset of epilepsy, we assessed the functional organization of memory and language in paediatric patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) at an early stage in epilepsy.

Methods: Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) response to four cognitive tasks measuring reading, story listening, memory encoding and retrieval in a population-based group of children with TLE of unknown cause (n = 21) and of normal intelligence and a healthy age and gender-matched control group (n = 21).

Connectivity disruptions in resting-state functional brain networks in children with temporal lobe epilepsy.

Functional resting-state connectivity has been shown to be altered in certain adult epilepsy populations, but few connectivity studies have been performed on pediatric epilepsy patients. Here functional connectivity was measured in pediatric, non-lesional temporal lobe epilepsy patients with normal intelligence and compared with that in age and gender-matched healthy controls using the independent component analysis method. We hypothesized that children with non-lesional temporal lobe epilepsy have disrupted functional connectivity within resting-state networks.

Valence scaling of dynamic facial expressions is altered in high-functioning subjects with autism spectrum disorders: an fMRI study.

FMRI was performed with the dynamic facial expressions fear and happiness. This was done to detect differences in valence processing between 25 subjects with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and 27 typically developing controls. Valence scaling was abnormal in ASDs.

Alterations in regional homogeneity of baseline brain activity in pediatric temporal lobe epilepsy.

Recent findings on intracortical EEG measurements show that the synchrony of localized neuronal networks is altered in epileptogenesis, leading to generalized seizure activity via connector hubs in the neuronal networks. Regional homogeneity (ReHo) analysis of blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signals has demonstrated localized signal synchrony and disease-related alterations in a number of instances. We wanted to find out whether the ReHo of resting-state activity can be used to detect regional signal synchrony alterations in children with non-lesional temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE).

Functional mapping of dynamic happy and fearful facial expression processing in adolescents.

This paper assessed the neural systems involved in processing of dynamic facial expressions in adolescents. The processing of facial expressions changes as a function of age, and it is thus important to understand how healthy adolescent subjects process dynamic facial expressions prior to analyzing disease-related changes. We hypothesized that viewing of dynamic facial expressions with opposing valences (happy vs.

Alterations in regional homogeneity of resting-state brain activity in autism spectrum disorders.

Measures assessing resting-state brain activity with blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can reveal cognitive disorders at an early stage. Analysis of regional homogeneity (ReHo) measures the local synchronization of spontaneous fMRI signals and has been successfully utilized in detecting alterations in subjects with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's dementia. Resting-state brain activity was investigated in 28 adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and 27 typically developing controls being imaged with BOLD fMRI and analyzed with the ReHo method.