Abstracts

Rationale: To link neuropsychological measurements with structural imaging to evaluate whether depressive symptom clusters are associated with distinct gray matter volume changes in children with epilepsy. Methods: Twenty-five children with epilepsy (16 female; mean age= 14.92; SD=1.35) underwent neuropsychological testing and 3T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Gray matter volume was correlated with subscale scores from the Children's Depression Inventory-2. Support Vector Regression (SVR) analysis was performed to predict changes in gray matter volume. The feature weights that were significant at 0.05 level were projected onto a standard brain template and visualized with MRICro software. Results: The highest predictability (i.e., correlation between actual and predicted values) was observed for CDI-2-negative mood with 95.19%. Two clusters of depressive symptoms were associated with structural brain changes. Specifically, emotional problems (e.g.,) and negative mood were related to increased gray matter volume in the left orbital part of the inferior frontal gyrus and right middle temporal gyrus. Emotional problems and negative mood were also associated with reduced gray matter volume in the left middle temporal pole. Functional problems, ineffectiveness, and personal problems were associated with increased gray matter changes in the left superior temporal gyrus. Conclusions: Findings of this pilot-study provide evidence for progressive reorganization of brain networks, supporting the presence of diverse patterns or clusters of depressive symptoms in children with epilepsy. Knowledge that specific brain regions are involved in distinct depressive symptom clusters may help tailor and improve treatments and subsequent outcomes over the course of epilepsy and quality of life. Funding: NA