Investigation of subcortical gray matter in patients with non-lesional neocortical focal epilepsy

Purpose: To investigate whether there is any change in the subcortical gray matter of patients with neocortical focal epilepsy without visible magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) abnormalities. Methods: MRI morphometric parameter data from 24 patients and 29 neurologically normal controls were analyzed. All of the MRI scans were reported to have no any anomaly. Differences were evaluated by vertex-wise shape analysis. Results: A shape analysis showed significant surface reductions at the anterior-ventral and the posteriordorsal aspects of the bilateral thalami, the global left caudate nucleus, part of the bilateral dorsal putamen and the left hippocampus. Conclusion: Patients with focal seizures and secondary generalization had smaller volumes and microstructural anomalies in subcortical gray matter regions.