Alteration of the alertness-related network in patients with right temporal lobe epilepsy: A resting state fMRI study

摘要

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate alterations in the alertness-related network in patients with right temporal lobe epilepsy (rTLE) and explore the functional mechanisms of impaired alertness. Methods: We recruited twenty patients with rTLE and eighteen matched healthy controls. All participants took a neuropsychological attention network test (ANT) and underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) scanning. We extracted the alertness-related network using multiple independent component analysis (MICA). Subsequently, we compared the intergroup differences in functional connectivity (FC) of this network. Then, the neuropsychological data were correlated to voxels that showed significant FC differences in patients and controls.