Thalamocortical Connections and Executive Function in Pediatric Temporal and Frontal Lobe Epilepsy.

Our results give insight into vulnerable neural networks in pediatric focal epilepsy and suggest thalamocortical pathway damage as a potential mechanism of executive function impairment in temporal lobe epilepsy but not frontal lobe epilepsy. Identifying structure-function relations can help inform how we measure functional and cognitive/behavioral outcomes in these populations.