Gelastic seizures involving the left parietal lobe.

Gelastic seizures have been described in various epilepsies arising from the temporal or frontal lobes, although the most commonly encountered form is related to the presence of a hypothalamic hamartoma. We describe a patient with gelastic seizures involving the left parietal lobe. Our patient, an 8-year-old girl, underwent interictal video/EEG monitoring and MRI. The seizures consisted of brief staring followed by smiling and laughing. Electroencephalography during the gelastic seizures showed rhythmic spikes and waves in the left parietal lobe. MRI revealed the characteristic features of focal cortical dysplasia. Our findings suggest that the left parietal lobe may actively participate in the particular epileptogenic network generating gelastic seizures.