Longitudinal alterations in brain networks and thalamocortical connectivity in paediatric focal epilepsy: a structural connectomics pilot study.

Epilepsy is an archetypal brain network disorder characterized by recurrent seizures and associated psychological, cognitive and behavioural sequelae. Progressive brain network dysfunction may contribute to poorer outcomes following treatment, but this has never been tested in humans. In this structural connectomics pilot study, we assess whether there is progressive brain network dysfunction in a cohort of 23 children undergoing repeated multi-shell diffusion tensor imaging as part of their pre-surgical evaluation of focal epilepsy prior to epilepsy surgery.

Pulmonary arteriovenous malformation causing lung sequestration and media infarction: a case report.

Pulmonary arteriovenous malformations (PAVMs) are rare vascular malformations of the lungs. Direct communication of pulmonary arteries to pulmonary veins is the defining characteristic allowing venous blood to bypass the pulmonary capillary system and avoiding an efficient oxygenation process. The complexity of the pathology lies not only in the variety of its manifestations, but also in the choice of the most appropriate and effective treatment.

Patient-derived monoclonal LGI1 autoantibodies elicit seizures, behavioral changes and brain MRI abnormalities in rodent models.

Objective: Limbic encephalitis with leucine-rich glioma inactivated 1 (LGI1) protein autoantibodies is associated with cognitive impairment, psychiatric symptoms, and seizures, including faciobrachial dystonic seizures (FBDS). Patient-derived LGI1-autoantibodies cause isolated symptoms of memory deficits in mice and seizures in rats. Using a multimodal experimental approach, we set out to improve the validity of existing in vivo rodent models to further recapitulate the full clinical syndrome of anti-LGI1 antibody mediated disease.

Spontaneous Brain Activity Emerges from Pairwise Interactions in the Larval Zebrafish Brain.

Brain activity is characterized by brainwide spatiotemporal patterns that emerge from synapse-mediated interactions between individual neurons. Calcium imaging provides access to recordings of whole-brain activity at single-neuron resolution and, therefore, allows the study of how large-scale brain dynamics emerge from local activity. In this study, we use a statistical mechanics approach-the pairwise maximum entropy model-to infer microscopic network features from collective patterns of activity in the larval zebrafish brain and relate these features to the emergence of observed whole-brain dynamics.

NORSE/FIRES: how can we advance our understanding of this devastating condition?

Introduction: New onset refractory status epilepticus (NORSE) is a rare and devastating condition characterised by the sudden onset of refractory status epilepticus (RSE) without an identifiable acute or active structural, toxic, or metabolic cause in an individual without a pre-existing diagnosis of epilepsy. Febrile infection-related epilepsy syndrome (FIRES) is considered a subcategory of NORSE and presents following a febrile illness prior to seizure onset. NORSE/FIRES is associated with high morbidity and mortality in children and adults.