The functional hyperconnectivity found in patients with SLPE relative to those with nPE in this study involved specifically temporal and prefrontal connections. In line with this observation, a recent review of structural and functional connectivity by Pettersson et al. highlighted that although there are no clear and unequivocal network alterations in terms of connectivity in schizophrenia, but instead a vast array of subtly altered networks throughout the brain, connectivity of frontal regions appears to be particularly compromised in this disorder [4]. Fletcher et al. using PET demonstrated that psychosis in schizophrenia was associated with abnormal temporo-prefrontal integration or with a disruption of the normal anterior cingulate modulation of this activity [70], which provides further support to our connectivity findings. Interestingly, the increase in lagged phase synchronization between temporal and prefrontal regions in our study affected specifically the right hemisphere. It might suggest a particular role for right-sided functional abnormalities in schizophrenia-like disorders, and in particular in SLPE. Alternatively, this might be related to the fact that the majority of the patients with SLPE in this study had mesiotemporal epilepsy with
