Thalamofrontal Circuitry Abnormalities and Frontal Executive Dysfunction in Juvenile Myoclonicepilepsy : Diffusion Tensor MRI and Neuropsychological Studies

Abstract

Rationale: Visual assessment of structural MRI is, by definition, normal in patients with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME), a major subsyndrome of idiopathic generalized epilepsy. However, recent quantitative MRI studies have shown structural abnormalities in frontal and thalamic grey matter (GM) in JME. In the present study, we addressed the issue of whether diffusion tensor MRI (DTI) can detect white matter abnormalities in patients with JME. We also performed several neuropsychological tests to evaluate frontal lobe dysfunctions in JME patients as compared to control subjects.