Kasteleijn-Nolst Trenité D G, Siebelink B M, Berends S G, van Strien J W, Meinardi H
Instituut voor Epilepsiebestrijding Meer en Bosch, and De Cruquiushoeve, Heemstede, The Netherlands.
Epilepsia. 1990 Nov-Dec;31(6):740-6. doi: 10.1111/j.1528-1157.1990.tb05515.x.
The interaction between lateralization of subclinical epileptiform discharges and cognitive tasks was investigated in 21 children (12 girls and 9 boys, mean age 10.6 years). Seventeen had a diagnosis of epilepsy (partial or secondarily generalized). Testing was by reading, arithmetic, and intelligence subtests during continuous telemetric EEG and video monitoring. Children with left-sided discharges had significantly lower reading performance than children with right-sided discharges. During reading, epileptiform discharges occurred relatively less frequently and with a shorter total duration over the left hemisphere than the right. This supports the view that cognitive tasks suppress epileptiform discharges when they activate a region of the brain within the epileptogenic zone. Discharges from other epileptogenic zones not directly activated by the tasks are increased, however.
