Analysis Of Cerebello-Cerebral White Matter Connective Patterns And Application In Generalized Epilepsy

Magnetic resonance imaging(MRI)is widely applied in the research of neuropsy-chiatric disorders due to its non-invasive,high resolution and etc.In past view,cerebel-lum only participate in the coordinated operation of motor area and sensory ares.How-ever,in recent years,the non-motor function of cerebellum is paid much attention by researchers,and it has been found that the cerebellum plays an important role in emo-tion,cognation and language.To examine the connective pattern of the white matter fibers in cerebellum-cere-bral cortex loops of healthy subjects and the laterality of the pathway,we collected dif-fusion tensor imaging(DTI)data and resting state functional magnetic resonance imag-ing(rsfMRI)data of 70 healthy adults.The cerebral cortex was divided into frontal,temporal,parietal and occipital lobe,and the probabilistic fiber tracers were traced to the cerebellum,moreover,extract the dispersion characteristic parameters of each path-way in each subject.The paired T test showed that the dentate nucleus to the cortex and cortex(frontal,parietal and occipital lobes)to the cerebellum showed an ipsilateral asymmetry,this may reflect the cerebellum participate in cerebral functional anatomical asymmetry.In order to further explore the cerebellum-cerebral cortex fiber bundle connection patterns in patients with generalized epilepsy(GE)and the lateral changes compared with healthy control(HC)group,in order to explore the changes of functional connectiv-ity and structural connectivity from cerebellum to whole brain of GE when compared with HC group,we also collected DTI data and rsfMRI data from 57 patients with GE.Through studying the changes of cerebellum-cerebral loops in GE patients to reflecting the mechanism of motor and cognitive abnormalities.First of all,the probabilistic fiber bundle tracer was used in the GE patients with the same method as before,and the dif-fusion characteristic parameters of each pathway were extracted.The results of paired T test found that the dentate nuclei-cerebral cortex and cerebral cortex(parietal lobe and occipital lobe)-cerebellum also showed bilateral asymmetry in GE patients..And then,compared with HC group about the lateralization,the results showed that the fiber bun-dles from frontal to cerebellum in GE group were significantly increased than HC group,and from occipital to cerebellum were significantly decreased than HC group.This may be related to abnormal discharge in frontal lobe of patients with GE.Finally,bilateral dentate nuclei were selected as region of interest(ROI),made functional con-nectivity and structural connectivity from ROI to the whole brain.The results of two-sample t-test showed that the white matter fibers of basal ganglia and thalamus in GE group were lower than those in HC group.Moreover,the functional connectivity from dentate nucleus to the basal ganglia also showed a significant decrease,which may be related to the motor symptoms in GE patients.In addition,in order to verify the local results,we examined the overall difference situation of the diffusion tensor indices of the white matter fiber bundles between GE group and HC group.The results showed that compared with HC group,the values of FA,MD and RD of GE in prefrontal lobe and thalamus were significantly decreased than those in HC group,this results were consistent with the results of local differences.In summary,this study reconstructed the cerebellum-cerebral cortex loop from a methodological point of view in HC group.It's further applied to the study of GE's brain structure,and the relationship between structural abnormalities and functional ab-normalities in GE patients was investigated by combining structural connectivity and functional connectivity.It was found that the connections between the cerebellar and cerebral cortex fiber bundles h than the ad certain laterality,and the GE group was more right side biased from frontal lobe to cerebellum than HC group,which revealed the ab-normal discharge of frontal lobe could change the lateralization of connection pathway in GE patients.Moreover,the structural connectivity and functional connectivity from cerebellum to basal ganglia in GE group showed abnormal changes,which may reflect the network mechanism of abnormal movement in GE patients.This study will provide valuable information for further understanding cerebellar-cerebral connection pathway and the role of cerebellum in the physiological and pathological mechanisms of GE.