Benign childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes: word and pseudoword discrimination

Abstract

-In the active phase of benign childhood epilepsy with centro-temporal spikes (BCECTS) there may be a fall in scholastic performance. Objective: To study lexical decision in children with BCECTS. Method: 42 children with BCECTS were compared with a control group with respect to their hits and response time in a visual discrimination of words and pseudowords task (DWPT). Results: The children with BCECTS had a lower percentage of hits for words and pseudowords and showed longer response times for pseudowords. They also frequently showed inferior reading and writing performance in the school performance test. The percentage of hits for pseudowords was lower when there was bilateral, asynchronous epileptiform activity. Conclusions: The DWPT provided contributions for reading assessments in children with BCECTS. The results indicated the need for attention in detecting reading difficulties in children with BCECTS.KEY WORDS: benign childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes, rolandic epilepsy, EEG, epileptiform activity, reading, cognition. Epilepsia benigna da infância com pontas centro-temporais: discriminação entre palavras e pseudopalavrasResumo -Na fase ativa da epilepsia benigna da infância com pontas centrotemporais (EBICT) pode ocorrer queda de desempenho escolar. Objetivo: Estudar a decisão lexical em crianças com EBICT. Método: 42 crianças com EBICT foram comparadas a grupo controle quanto a acertos e tempo de resposta em tarefa de discriminação visual entre palavras e pseudopalavras (DVPPS). Resultados: As crianças com EBICT tiveram percentual menor de acertos para palavras e pseudopalavras e maior tempo de resposta para pseudopalavras e tiveram, mais frequentemente, desempenho inferior em escrita e leitura em teste de desempenho escolar. Houve relação significativa entre os resultados do DVPPS e o teste de desempenho escolar. A percentagem de acerto de pseudopalavras foi menor quando havia atividade epileptiforme bilateral e assíncronia no

Cognitive and other neuropsychological profiles in children with newly diagnosed benign rolandic epilepsy

“…However, individualized test scores on several sub-domains revealed a different aspect. Like many previous studies1,4,6,8,19-26), this study also revealed that 8 children (35%) had memory impairment, problems in VF, frontal executive dysfunction and attention deficits which led to poor academic performance. The language impairment in children with BRE and the acquired aphasia in Landau-Kleffner syndrome (LKS) indicate a large spectrum of interactions between language function and epilpsy.…”

Frontal Lobe Epilepsies: Neuropsychological and Behavioral Consequences in Children

“…So this study demonstrated that BECTS influences a language network that involves the more anterior, and therefore frontal cerebral regions (Lillywhite et al, 2009). Difficulties have also been reported in academic perfomances (Nicolai et al, 2007) and learning, with deficits in reading (Ay et al, 2009;Fonseca et al, 2009;Papavasiliou et al, 2005;Piccirilli et al, 2008;Staden et al, 1998) and spelling (Monjauze et al, 2005;Papavasiliou et al, 2005;Staden et al, 1998). Memory also seems to be negatively influenced by spikes in the centrotemporal area: there are reports of difficulties in short-term verbal memory (Danielsson & Petermann, 2009;Northcott et al, 2005;Weglage et al, 1997), visuo-spatial memory (Baglietto et al 2001; www.intechopen.com Danielsson & Petermann, 2009;Volkl-Kernstock et al, 2009) and long-term verbal memory (Northcott et al, 2005) as well as in the learning of verbal information (Croona et al, 1999;Staden et al, 1998).…”

Does the Epileptic Side (Left, Right, Bilateral) Differently Impair the Cognitive Functioning in Patients with Benign Childhood Epilepsy with Centro-Temporal Spikes (BECTS)? A Literature Review

“…In children with BECTS, regardless of the hemisphere in which the epileptic focus was located, there was no ear advantage as is expected in typical language lateralization (right ear advantage/left hemisphere advantage) [33]. In children with bilateral focus, some studies found no particular deficits [41], while other studies found specific impairments in attention [29], reading and language capacities such as in discrimination of words and lexical decision [49].…”