Neurometabolic Network (NMetNet) for Functional Neurological Disorder in Children and Adolescents

Motivation: Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) has been used for Functional Neurological Disorder (FND). Unlike past concentration-level analyses, we focus on conditional dependencies among neurometabolites, offering a brand-new perspective on FND mechanism. Goal(s): To verify if children with FND would be characterized by aberrant losses in conditional dependencies among neurometabolites between the frontal and parietal regions. Approach: The cross-sectional study compared children with FND to healthy controls using MRS to measure six neurometabolites across three brain regions. A Bayesian graphical lasso assessed network-level neurometabolic differences. Results: Children with FND showed significant loss of neurometabolite dependencies, indicating dysregulated energy metabolism and increased oxidative stress vulnerability. Impact: The study's findings may guide future research on targeted treatments for FND that address energy metabolism and oxidative stress. It enables exploration into interventions that restore neurometabolic balance, fostering new therapeutic approaches and improving patient care and outcomes.