Liu W, et al. - This study was performed to investigate alterations in the local (regional) and remote (interregional) cerebral networks among patients with periventricular nodular heterotopia (PNH)-related epilepsy. As evaluated by the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF), focal spontaneous hypofunction correlated with epilepsy duration in patients with PNH-related epilepsy. Abnormalities existed both within the default-mode network and then across the whole brain, showing that intrinsic brain dysfunction could be related to specific network interactions. These findings gave a novel understanding of the connectivity-based pathophysiological mechanisms of PNH.

• The physicians enrolled 28 subjects who suffered from PNH with epilepsy, as well as 28 age- and sex- matched healthy controls.
• They calculated amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and seed-based functional connectivity (FC) to detect regional neural function and functional network integration, respectively.

• Patients with PNH-related epilepsy demonstrated decreased ALFF in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and precuneus areas compared with healthy controls.
• In both areas, ALFF values were negatively associated with epilepsy duration (P < .05, Bonferroni-corrected).
• Moreover, patients with PNH-related epilepsy had increased remote interregional FC mainly in bilateral prefrontal and parietal cortices, supramarginal gyrus, dorsal cingulate gyrus, and right insula.
• Lower FC was found in posterior brain regions including bilateral parahippocampal gyrus and inferior temporal gyrus.