Cortical Thinning in Children with Frontal Lobe Epilepsy

Elysa Widjaja¹, Sina Zarei Mahmoodabadi¹, O. Carter Snead¹, Abeer Almehdar¹, Mary Lou Smith¹

Rapid spread of seizure activity due to cortico-cortical connections is likely to result in alteration in cortical thickness within and beyond the frontal lobes in children with frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE). We investigated the cortical thickness of children with intractable FLE. The cortical thickness of 17 children with intractable FLE, 12 left FLE and 5 right FLE, and normal MRI were compared with 26 normal controls. We have found frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital cortical thinning, in both right and left FLE patients. Frontal and extra-frontal cortical thinning may reflect the epileptogenic network in FLE.