Interictal Characteristic Gamma Neural Activities In Benign Epilepsy With Centrotemporal Spikes

Objective:Benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes(BECTS)is the most common childhood epilepsy syndrome.Although BECTS children have a good prognosis,more and more studies have pointed out that children with BECTS usually show a certain degree of brain dysfunction.This study aimed to investigate interictal neuromagnetic activities in the low-to high-frequency ranges in BECTS children,to explore transient and chronic neurological activity abnormalities in BECTS by distinguishing between the presence and absence of interictal epileptiform discharge(IED),and to deepen the understanding of the pathogenesis of BECTS.And we attempted to use these differences in brain activity to distinguish BECTS without IEDs from the healthy controls(HC).Methods:We studied 21 clinically-diagnosed BECTS children and 11 age-matched healthy controls(HC)using high-sampling magnetoencephalography(MEG).Neuromagnetic sources were assessed with accumulated source imaging(ASI).The MEG data were analyzed in seven frequency bands.The MEG recordings distinguished BECTS without IED(n?=?10)from those with IED(n?=?11)and HC(n=11).Results:At 1-4 Hz,the neuromagnetic activities in healthy subjects tended to locate at the precuneus/posterior cingulate(PC/PCC),while those of the BECTS children without IED tended to locate at the medial frontal cortex(MFC)compared to BECTS children with IED.The MEG source imaging at 30-80 Hz revealed that BECTS children without IED had higher occurrences of interictal brain activity in the medial temporal lobe(MTL)compared to HC and the brain activity strength seemed to be weaker.There was a significant correlation between the source strength of the interictal gamma oscillations of BECTS children without IED and the duration of epilepsy.Conclusions:IED might disturb the default mode network region.Aberrant brain activities in BECTS children without IED are associated with cognitive areas of the brain.The strength of gamma oscillations in the chronic epilepsy state reflects the duration of BECTS.The neuromagnetic activity in children with BECTS is frequency dependent.