Aberrant Brain Structure-Function Decoupling in Generalized Epilepsy Revealed by Graph Signal Processing

Genetic generalized epilepsy is a neurological disorder associated with multiscale alterations in brain network organizations. However, the epilepsy-related brain structural-functional interaction abnormalities remain largely unknown. Here, we applied graph signal processing to estimate regional structure-function decoupling (SFD), which described the decoupling strength between brain functional activity and underlying anatomical architecture. We investigated brain SFD alterations in 86 patients with genetic generalized epilepsy with generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GGE-GTCS), and 114 healthy controls. Relative to control subjects, individuals with GGE-GTCS revealed SFD decreased in occipital, parietal, and superior temporal cortices, whereas SFD increased in frontal, cingulate, and inferior temporal cortices and subcortical nucleus accumbens and caudate areas. The SFD alteration pattern was spatially correlated with gamma-aminobutyric acid neurotransmitter density. Collectively, our findings provide insights on clarifying brain structural-functional reorganization in GGE-GTCS.