Neuroticism in temporal lobe epilepsy is associated with altered limbic-frontal lobe resting-state functional connectivity.

Neuroticism, a core personality trait characterized by a tendency towards experiencing negative affect, has been reported to be higher in people with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) compared with healthy individuals. Neuroticism is a known predictor of depression and anxiety, which also occur more frequently in people with TLE. The purpose of this study was to identify abnormalities in whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity in relation to neuroticism in people with TLE and to determine the degree of unique versus shared patterns of abnormal connectivity in relation to elevated symptoms of depression and anxiety. Ninety-three individuals with TLE (55 females) and 40 healthy controls (18 females) from the Epilepsy Connectome Project (ECP) completed measures of neuroticism, depression, and anxiety, which were all significantly higher in people with TLE compared with controls. Resting-state functional connectivity was compared between controls and groups with TLE with high and low neuroticism using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t-test. In secondary analyses, the same analytics were performed using measures of depression and anxiety and the unique variance in resting-state connectivity associated with neuroticism independent of symptoms of depression and anxiety identified. Increased neuroticism was significantly associated with hyposynchrony between the right hippocampus and Brodmann area (BA) 9 (region of prefrontal cortex (PFC)) (p < 0.005), representing a unique relationship independent of symptoms of depression and anxiety. Hyposynchrony of connection between the right hippocampus and BA47 (anterior frontal operculum) was associated with high neuroticism and with higher depression and anxiety scores (p < 0.05), making it a shared abnormal connection for the three measures. In conclusion, increased neuroticism exhibits both unique and shared patterns of abnormal functional connectivity with depression and anxiety symptoms between regions of the mesial temporal and frontal lobe.

Neuroanatomical correlates of personality traits in temporal lobe epilepsy: Findings from the Epilepsy Connectome Project.

Behavioral and personality disorders in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) have been a topic of interest and controversy for decades, with less attention paid to alterations in normal personality structure and traits. In this investigation, core personality traits (the Big 5) and their neurobiological correlates in TLE were explored using the Neuroticism Extraversion Openness-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) through the Epilepsy Connectome Project (ECP). NEO-FFI scores from 67 individuals with TLE (34.6 ±â€¯9.5 years; 67% women) were compared to 31 healthy controls (32.8 ±â€¯8.9 years; 41% women) to assess differences in the Big 5 traits (agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and extraversion). Individuals with TLE showed significantly higher neuroticism, with no significant differences on the other traits. Neural correlates of neuroticism were then determined in participants with TLE including cortical and subcortical volumes. Distributed reductions in cortical gray matter volumes were associated with increased neuroticism. Subcortically, hippocampal and amygdala volumes were negatively associated with neuroticism. These results offer insight into alterations in the Big 5 personality traits in TLE and their brain-related correlates.

Increasing culturally relevant science media coverage: exploring the outcomes of a collaboration in Puerto Rico.

CienciaPR, a nonprofit that brings together the largest network of Puerto Rican scientists and one of the largest networks of Hispanic/Latine scientists in the world, has collaborated with El Nuevo Día (END), Puerto Rico's newspaper of record, to increase culturally relevant stories in their science section. This Practice Insight quantifies and compares the presence of culturally relevant elements (e.g., referring to Puerto Rico, local landmarks, historic figures, slang) and other content information (e.g., topics, location, focus, protagonist) in articles authored by CienciaPR members versus articles by END, news agencies, and other organizations. Results demonstrate that CienciaPR-authored articles published in END featured culturally relevant elements more often (e.g., mentioned Puerto Rico, used Puerto Rican slang, stories located in Puerto Rico) than those by other sources.

Cortisol effects on brain functional connectivity during emotion processing in women with depression.

BACKGROUND: Depression is associated with altered functional connectivity and altered cortisol sensitivity, but the effects of cortisol on functional connectivity in depression are unknown. Previous research shows that brief cortisol augmentation (CORT) has beneficial neurocognitive effects in depression. METHODS: We investigated the effects of CORT (20mg oral cortisol) on functional connectivity during emotion processing in women with depression. Participants included 75 women with no depression or a depressive disorder. In a double-blind, crossover study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure effects of CORT vs. placebo on task-based functional connectivity during presentation of emotionally-laden images. We performed psychophysiological interaction (PPI) to test interactions among depression severity, cortisol administration, and task-dependent functional connectivity using the hippocampus and amygdala as seeds. RESULTS: During the presentation of negative images, CORT (vs. placebo) increased functional connectivity between the hippocampus and putamen in association with depression severity. During the presentation of positive pictures CORT increased functional connectivity between the hippocampus and middle frontal gyrus as well as superior temporal gyrus in association with depression. LIMITATIONS: Because cortisol was pharmacologically manipulated, results cannot be extrapolated to endogenous increases in cortisol levels. The sample did not permit investigation of differences due to race, ethnicity, or sex. Co-morbidities such as anxiety or PTSD were not accounted for. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that CORT has normalizing effects on task-dependent functional connectivity in women with depression during emotion processing. Increasing cortisol availability or signaling may have therapeutic benefits within affective disorders.

Brain aging in temporal lobe epilepsy: Chronological, structural, and functional.

The association of epilepsy with structural brain changes and cognitive abnormalities in midlife has raised concern regarding the possibility of future accelerated brain and cognitive aging and increased risk of later life neurocognitive disorders. To address this issue we examined age-related processes in both structural and functional neuroimaging among individuals with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE, N = 104) who were participants in the Epilepsy Connectome Project (ECP). Support vector regression (SVR) models were trained from 151 healthy controls and used to predict TLE patients' brain ages. It was found that TLE patients on average have both older structural (+6.6 years) and functional (+8.3 years) brain ages compared to healthy controls. Accelerated functional brain age (functional - chronological age) was mildly correlated (corrected P = 0.07) with complex partial seizure frequency and the number of anti-epileptic drug intake. Functional brain age was a significant correlate of declining cognition (fluid abilities) and partially mediated chronological age-fluid cognition relationships. Chronological age was the only positive predictor of crystallized cognition. Accelerated aging is evident not only in the structural brains of patients with TLE, but also in their functional brains. Understanding the causes of accelerated brain aging in TLE will be clinically important in order to potentially prevent or mitigate their cognitive deficits.

Using Low-Frequency Oscillations to Detect Temporal Lobe Epilepsy with Machine Learning.

The National Institutes of Health-sponsored Epilepsy Connectome Project aims to characterize connectivity changes in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients. The magnetic resonance imaging protocol follows that used in the Human Connectome Project, and includes 20 min of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging acquired at 3T using 8-band multiband imaging. Glasser parcellation atlas was combined with the FreeSurfer subcortical regions to generate resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC), amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFFs), and fractional ALFF measures. Seven different frequency ranges such as Slow-5 (0.01-0.027 Hz) and Slow-4 (0.027-0.073 Hz) were selected to compute these measures. The goal was to train machine learning classification models to discriminate TLE patients from healthy controls, and to determine which combination of the resting state measure and frequency range produced the best classification model. The samples included age- and gender-matched groups of 60 TLE patients and 59 healthy controls. Three traditional machine learning models were trained: support vector machine, linear discriminant analysis, and naive Bayes classifier. The highest classification accuracy was obtained using RSFC measures in the Slow-4 + 5 band (0.01-0.073 Hz) as features. Leave-one-out cross-validation accuracies were ∼83%, with receiver operating characteristic area-under-the-curve reaching close to 90%. Increased connectivity from right area posterior 9-46v in TLE patients contributed to the high accuracies. With increased sample sizes in the near future, better machine learning models will be trained not only to aid the diagnosis of TLE, but also as a tool to understand this brain disorder.

Effective Connectivity Within the Default Mode Network in Left Temporal Lobe Epilepsy: Findings from the Epilepsy Connectome Project.

The Epilepsy Connectome Project examines the differences in connectomes between temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients and healthy controls. Using these data, the effective connectivity of the default mode network (DMN) in patients with left TLE compared with healthy controls was investigated using spectral dynamic causal modeling (spDCM) of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data. Group comparisons were made using two parametric empirical Bayes (PEB) models. The first level of each PEB model consisted of each participant's spDCM. Two different second-level models were constructed: the first comparing effective connectivity of the groups directly and the second using the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) delayed free recall index as a covariate at the second level to assess effective connectivity controlling for the poor memory performance of left TLE patients. After an automated search over the nested parameter space and thresholding parameters at 95% posterior probability, both models revealed numerous connections in the DMN, which lead to inhibition of the left hippocampal formation. Left hippocampal formation inhibition may be an inherent result of the left temporal epileptogenic focus as memory differences were controlled for in one model and the same connections remained. An excitatory connection from the posterior cingulate cortex to the medial prefrontal cortex was found to be concomitant with left hippocampal formation inhibition in TLE patients when including RAVLT delayed free recall at the second level.