New research led by a UCLH consultant in collaboration with the Keck School of Medicine of USC has shown that epilepsy is associated with the differences in thickness and volume of grey matter within several brain regions.
The study, published in Brain, is the largest-ever neuroimaging study of people with epilepsy. Results have shown that epilepsy involves more widespread physical differences than previously assumed.
The brain abnormalities identified were subtle, and have not yet been linked to any loss of brain function.
Reduced grey matter thickness was noticed in parts of the brain’s outer layer (cortex) and reduced volume in subcortical brain regions in those with epilepsy. These findings are associated with longer duration of epilepsy. Notably, people with epilepsy showed lower volume in a region that relays sensory and motor signals - right thalamus. There was also reduced thickness in the motor cortex, which controls the body’s movement.
Professor Sanjay Sisodiya, lead author of the paper said: “We found differences in brain matter even in common epilepsies that are often considered to be comparatively benign. While we haven’t yet assessed the impact of these differences, our findings suggest there’s more to epilepsy than we realise, and now we need to do more research to understand the causes of these differences.”
Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that affects 0.6-1.5% of the global population, comprising many different syndromes and conditions, and defined by a tendency for seizures.
The study was conducted by the global ENIGMA-Epilepsy consortium, part of ENIGMA which is headquartered at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, and pooled data from 24 research centres across Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia.
Image Credit: Christopher D Whelan et al.
