Non-classical event-related potentials reveal attention network alteration in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy.

Objective: To explore the characteristic changes of multiple ERP components associated with attention impairments in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE).

Methods: A total of 92 patients diagnosed with TLE at Xiangya Hospital during May 2022 and January 2023 and 85 healthy controls were included in this study. Participants were asked to complete attention network test with recording of electroencephalogram.

Results: Compared with healthy controls, significant lower amplitudes (cue-related N1, N2 and CNV) and longer latencies (target-related N2) were found in TLE patients. Besides classical components, other components could also reveal the impairments of attention function. Cue-related N1 (p ≤ 0.007) and N2 (p ≤ 0.01) components indicated impaired alerting and orienting network in TLE. And cue-related CNV-E component (p = 0.003) promoted the alerting network was damaged and target-related N2 component (p = 0.008) indicated the executive control network was impaired.

Conclusion: These findings consummate the non-classical ERP features of attention impairments in TLE patients.

Significance: The above findings have strong clinical guiding significance for early identification and intervention.