Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy shows increased posterior theta, and reduced sensorimotor beta resting connectivity

Highlights • We investigated whole brain source space connectivity in JME using across standard MEG frequency bands. • Connectivity was increased in posterior theta and alpha bands in JME, and decreased in sensorimotor beta band. • Our findings highlight altered interactions between posterior networks of arousal and attention and the motor system in JME.

Background Widespread structural and functional brain network changes have been shown in Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy (JME) despite normal clinical neuroimaging. We sought to better define these changes using magnetoencephalography (MEG) and source space connectivity analysis for optimal neurophysiological and anatomical localisation. Methods We consecutively recruited 26 patients with JME who underwent resting state MEG recording, along with 26 age-and-sex matched controls. Whole brain connectivity was determined through correlation of Automated Anatomical Labelling (AAL) atlas source space MEG timeseries in conventional frequency bands of interest delta (1−4 Hz), theta (4−8 Hz), alpha (8−13 Hz), beta (13−30 Hz) and gamma (40−60 Hz). We used a Linearly Constrained Minimum Variance (LCMV) beamformer to extract voxel wise time series of ‘virtual sensors’ for the desired frequency bands, followed by connectivity analysis using correlation between frequency- and node-specific power fluctuations, for the voxel maxima in each AAL atlas label, correcting for noise, potentially spurious connections and multiple comparisons. Results We found increased connectivity in the theta band in posterior brain regions, surviving statistical correction for multiple comparisons (corrected p