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. 2020 Sep 8;10(9):622.
doi: 10.3390/brainsci10090622.

Widespread Reductions of Spontaneous Neurophysiological Activity in Leber's Disease-An Application of EEG Source Current Density Reconstruction

Affiliations

Widespread Reductions of Spontaneous Neurophysiological Activity in Leber's Disease-An Application of EEG Source Current Density Reconstruction

Kamil Jonak. Brain Sci. .

Abstract

Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is a rare, maternally inherited genetic disease caused by a mutation of mitochondrial DNA. Classical descriptions have highlighted structural abnormalities in various parts of patients' optic tracts; however, current studies have proved that changes also affect many cortical and subcortical structures, not only these belonging to the visual system. This study aimed at improving our understanding of neurophysiological impairments in LHON. First of all, we wanted to know if there were any differences between the health control and LHON subjects in the whole-brain source electroencephalography (EEG) analysis. Second, we wanted to investigate the associations between the observed results and some selected aspects of Leber's disease's clinical picture. To meet these goals, 20 LHON patients and 20 age-matched healthy control (HC) subjects were examined. To investigate the electrophysiological differences between the HC and LHON groups, a quantitative analysis of the whole-brain current source density was performed. The signal analysis method was based on scalp EEG data and an inverse solution method called low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (eLORETA). In comparison with the healthy subjects, LHON participants showed significantly decreased neuronal activity in the alpha and gamma bands; more specifically, in the alpha band, the decrease was mainly found in the occipital lobes and secondary visual cortex, whereas, in the gamma band, the reduced activity occurred in multiple cortical areas. Additionally, a correlation was found between the alpha band activity of the right secondary visual cortex and the averaged thickness of the right retinal nerve fiber layer in the LHON participants. Our study suggests that LHON is associated with widespread cortical de-activation, rather than simply abnormalities of structures constituting the visual system.

Keywords: EEG; LHON; alpha band; current-source density; gamma band.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Source reconstruction analysis flowchart. In the first step, the electroencephalogram (EEG) signals were recorded, filtered, and segmented. Second, the head model was reconstructed using the MNI152 scalp template. Third, sources were reconstructed by applying the low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (eLORETA) algorithm for every participant and in every frequency band. Finally, the differences in source localization (in each frequency band) between the two groups were evaluated using voxel-by-voxel independent sample F-ratio tests.
Figure 2
Figure 2
eLORETA spatial maps of voxels that were significantly differentiating groups with respect to current source density distribution on a cortical surfaces. Differences were labelled with different shades of blue due to decreased oscillations in the LHON group, with brighter spots of peak-to-max difference voxels according to log F-ratio values. Each segment displays lateral and medial projections of the left and right hemisphere and the top view. Distribution of alpha frequency band (upper map) shows that LHON participants had significantly decreased current source density values in occipital and parietal lobes, with the voxels of peak difference in the right middle occipital gyrus (tmax = −3.86) and the secondary visual cortex (tmax = −3.59). The lower map presents the distribution in the gamma frequency band, where LHON participants had significantly decreased current source density values in multiple brain areas, such as the parietal, occipital, and frontal lobes. The voxels o peak difference was placed in the right superior parietal lobule (tmax = −4.11), right precuneus (tmax = −4.1), right angular gyrus (tmax = −4.03), and right inferior parietal lobule (tmax = −4.01). The low log(F-ratio) significance threshold for the gamma frequency band was log(F-ratio) = −2.21 with p < 0.05.
Figure 3
Figure 3
A correlation scatterplot showing the associations between the averaged thickness of the right retinal nerve fiber layer and the right hemisphere BA 19 source signal in the alpha frequency band in the LHON group.

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