Further, linear regression analyses revealed that brain scores from the structural PLS strongly predicted brain scores of the functional connectivity PLS in both patient groups (see Fig. 1C, CTL and left mTLE, r2 = 0.24, p < 0.001; CTL and right mTLE, r2 = 0.22, p < 0.001). These findings are especially of interest because, as predicted by virtual lesions (Alstott et al., 2009), local structural DMN damage causes wide-spread functional connectivity alterations throughout this network. In fact, in both patient groups, these wide-spread disturbances of functional connectivity resulted in specific connectivity patterns (i.e., decreased posterior interhemispheric and increased anterior intrahemispheric connectivity).
