Single-timepoint dynamic functional connectivity patterns in temporal lobe epilepsy

Motivation: Epileptic tissue generates interictal spikes between seizures, which are used to localize the epileptic focus clinically. Goal(s): We aimed to detect dynamic functional connectivity (FC) patterns in resting-state fMRI data that may be related to interictal spikes. Approach: We detected whole-brain dynamic FC patterns at timepoints that had FC characteristics similar to epileptic spikes in both healthy controls and patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Results: We found three dynamic FC patterns, one of which occurred more in TLE than in controls and the occurrence of which was related to clinical measures of epilepsy severity. Impact: These results suggest the potential clinical utility of fMRI-based dynamic FC to detect interictal spikes. Future studies can evaluate the correspondence of these dynamic FC patterns to interictal spikes using simultaneous electrophysiology and fMRI.