Abstracts

Rationale: Children with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) exhibit attention deficits on traditional neuropsychological tests. However, there is limited evidence of neural network alterations associated with this clinical executive dysfunction. The objective of this study was to characterize attention deficits in children with TLE via activation of the dorsal attention network on fMRI. Methods: Functional magnetic resonance imaging was conducted on 18 children with TLE and 18 healthy control participants (age 8-16 years) while they performed the Go-No-Go task in order to assess activation of the dorsal attention network, as well as accuracy and reaction times while performing the Go-No-Go task. Results: Children with TLE exhibited attention dysfunction on Go-No-Go accuracy and reaction time compared to healthy controls. Children with TLE also exhibited significant reduction in activation of the frontal lobe within the dorsal attention network compared to healthy controls. These alterations were significantly correlated with the Go-No-Go behavioral findings. Conclusions: Children with TLE exhibit  attention dysfunction which may manifest as alterations in the dorsal attention network. This lends credence to the theory that the dorsal attention network contributes to attentional deficits in children with TLE. This also indicates that children with TLE have network alterations in non-temporal brain regions. Funding: The study was funded and supported by the Epilepsy Foundation.