Elevated Connectivity During a Language Processing Task in Self-limited Epilepsy with Centrotemporal Spikes Is Associated with Worse Language Function
Abstract number :
1.104
Submission category :
11. Behavior/Neuropsychology/Language / 11B. Pediatrics
Year :
2024
Submission ID :
1319
Source :
www.aesnet.org
Presentation date :
12/7/2024 12:00:00 AM
Published date :
Authors :
Presenting Author: Wendy Qi, BS – Stanford University
Katharine Lee, MS – Stanford University
Kerry Nix, BS – Stanford University
Miguel Menchaca, BS – Stanford University
Wei Wu, PhD – Stanford University
Zihuai He, PhD – Stanford University
Fiona Baumer, MD – Stanford University
Rationale: Children with Self-Limited Epilepsy with Centrotemporal Spikes (SeLECTS) have seizures and interictal spike waves arising from the motor cortex and develop language difficulties. We found that brain connectivity is elevated acutely during times when IEDs are present and posit that chronic alterations in connectivity contribute to language dysfunction. We test if children with SeLECTS have different connectivity than typically-developing controls during a language processing task and assess whether connectivity is associated with language performance.
Methods: Right-handed children with SeLECTS and age and sex-matched controls (31 SeLECTS, 32 Controls, 9.3+/-2 years, 37% female) completed a language (verb generation) task and a resting control task while electroencephalogram was recorded. Phonological awareness was quantified on a separate day with the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing-2. Connectivity between four regions – left inferior frontal (IF) and superior temporal (ST) regions (critical for language) and the bilateral motor regions (implicated in SeLECTS) – was measured using the weighted Phase Lag Index (wPLI). We tested if connectivity differed between groups in either task, adjusting for age and sex, and also tested if connectivity was associated with phonological awareness.
Results: SeLECTS had higher left IF to ST connectivity than Controls during verb generation (group difference=0.07, CI 0.02-0.11, p=0.003) but not during rest. Right motor to left ST connectivity was elevated in SeLECTS during both verb generation (difference=0.04, CI 0.01-0.07, p=0.008) and rest (difference=0.03, CI 0.01-0.05, p=0.001). Higher left IF to ST connectivity (-33.1, CI -60.3 to -5.9, p=0.017) and right motor to left ST connectivity (-55.8, CI -81.5 to -30.1, p< 0.0001) during verb generation were associated with worse phonological awareness in SeLECTS but not Controls. Resting connectivity was not associated with phonological awareness in either group.
Behavior