Video game-related seizures: a report on 10 patients and a review of the literature.

Objective: To further describe the features, postulated pathophysiology, treatment, and outcome of seizures occurring while playing or watching video games (video game-related seizures (VGRS)).

Design: We evaluated retrospectively 10 patients with VGRS seen by us and reviewed 25 reported cases.

Results: The 35 patients ranged in age from 1 to 36 years (mean: 13.

Electrocorticography in patients with medically intractable temporal lobe seizures. I. Quantification of epileptiform discharges prior to resective surgery.

We studied retrospectively the intraoperative preresection electrocorticograms (ECoGs) of 72 patients undergoing surgery for medically intractable, mostly complex partial, temporal lobe seizures (TLS). Quantification of interictal epileptiform discharges (EDs) detected visually at each electrode location in 2 min recording epochs included computations of ED rates (EDs/min) and cumulative voltages (CuVs) (microV/min). Of 6388 EDs, 81% involved the infratemporal surface, 18% the lateral temporal surface and 1% the orbital frontal area.

Long-term EEG-video-audio monitoring: computer detection of focal EEG seizure patterns.

Twelve individuals with medically refractory partial seizures had undergone EEG-video-audio (EVA) monitoring over 1-15 (mean 10.5) days. We selectively reexamined available 15-channel EEGs (video-cassettes) totaling 461 h and containing 253 EEG focal seizures.

Epileptic nystagmus.

Two cases of epileptic nystagmus (EN) are described. The first patient had no history of seizures and experienced attacks of EN associated with oscillopsia and followed by horizontal diplopia and esotropia. These episodes could be triggered by certain visual stimuli and ocular pressure.

Cone dysfunction in a subgroup of patients with autosomal dominant cerebellar ataxia.

Four patients with autosomal dominant cerebellar ataxia and retinal degeneration underwent neurologic and ophthalmologic examinations and computer-assessed corneal electroretinography. Previous reports described progressive panretinal degeneration initially involving the cones and subsequently spreading to the rods. By contrast, all our patients displayed evidence of selective dysfunction of the cone system in one or two successive electroretinograms, irrespective of their age or duration of visual symptoms.

Long-term EEG-video-audio monitoring: detection of partial epileptic seizures and psychogenic episodes by 24-hour EEG record review.

Twenty-seven patients with medically refractory paroxysmal disorders underwent EEG-video-audio (EVA) monitoring in an inpatient neurology-neurosurgery unit over 1-15 (mean 8.9) days. Fast visual review of all EEG records (5,784 h) and subsequent analysis of synchronized EVA patterns demonstrated a total of 208 partial epileptic seizures (ES) in 12 individuals and 87 psychogenic episodes (PE) in 15 subjects.

Acute failure of forebrain with sparing of brain-stem function. Electroencephalographic, multimodality evoked potential, and pathologic findings.

We describe a case of acute failure of forebrain with preservation of brain-stem function following cardiopulmonary arrest. This condition is distinguished from persistent vegetative or noncognitive states. Multimodality evoked potentials showed electroretinograms but no cerebral potentials to flash stimulation of both eyes; normal electrocochleograms and brain-stem auditory-evoked potentials to click stimulation of both ears; and Erb's point, N13, and P14 but no cortical responses to electrical excitation of both median nerves.

A case of persistent cortical deafness: clinical, neurophysiologic, and neuropathologic observations.

A 61-year-old man became deaf after the second of two cerebral infarctions which successively involved the temporal and adjacent cortices. He remained completely deaf until death 27 months later. Click stimulation demonstrated normal short-latency potentials, middle-latency responses better developed to stimulation of the right than of the left ear, and absent long-latency potentials.

Discrepancy between intraoperative SSEP's and postoperative function. Case report.

The authors report a case in which midline myelotomy for the removal of a C4-T4 ependymoma was immediately followed by abolition of short-latency somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEP's) in response to bilateral posterior tibial nerve (PTN) stimulation which proved irreversible intraoperatively. Subsequent intraoperative testing also revealed obliteration of median nerve (MN)-elicited responses. Postoperatively, joint and vibration sensations deteriorated in the lower extremities and there was unchanged very mild impairment of light touch, pinprick, and temperature sensibilities without significant loss of muscle strength.

Modified nomenclature for the "10%" electrode system.

A modified nomenclature for designating the auxiliary electrodes of the 10% system is described.

Heterozygote detection in X-linked recessive incomplete achromatopsia.

Carrier women in a family with X-linked incomplete achromatopsia (XLIA) were evaluated by means of ophthalmologic examinations, psychophysical tests, and electroretinography (ERG). Ophthalmologic examinations of five obligate carrier women and three women at 50% risk were normal except for the finding of high myopia in one carrier and one woman at risk. Detailed color vision testing was normal in all eight women.

Cochlear summating potential to broadband clicks detected from the human external auditory meatus. A study of subjects with normal hearing for age.

The cochlear summating potential (SP) preceding the auditory nerve compound action potential (AP) was elicited by broadband alternating condensation and rarefaction clicks and recorded by noninvasive electrodes from the external auditory meatus (EAM) of 60 volunteers of both sexes, 12 to 67 years old, who had normal hearing for age. Quantitative data were obtained on: the number of ears displaying measurable SPs; the SP detection level; the SP onset, peak and rise times; the duration of the SP-AP complex; the SP amplitude; and the SP/AP amplitude ratio. Previously unknown relationships were unveiled between the amplitude, but not the temporal, measures of the SP and laterality, sex, age, and audiometrically determined hearing thresholds to 4 to 8 kHz tones.

Cochlear summating potential recorded from the external auditory meatus of normal humans. Amplitude-intensity functions and relationships to auditory nerve compound action potential.

The summating potential (SP) and the auditory nerve compound action potential (AP) of the electrocochleogram were recorded from the external auditory meatus (EAM) of 10 normal subjects in response to alternating rarefaction and condensation clicks at 90-120 dB pe SPL. Both logarithmic and power functions suggested a similar strength of relationship between SP amplitude and stimulus intensity in each subject. However, a power function represented a more appropriate model of this relationship for the whole set of subjects than did the logarithmic function.

Electrical stimulation of tooth pulp in humans. II. Qualities of sensations.

Individual premolar teeth of 22 normal volunteers were stimulated via intradentinal electrodes using brief electrical pulses. Questionnaires were used to determine the qualities of sensations produced by this stimulation. Operationally defined 'innocuous' sensations predominated between 1 and 10 dB SL, and were absent above 30 dB SL.

Electrical stimulation of tooth pulp in humans. I. Relationships among physical stimulus intensities, psychological magnitude estimates and cerebral evoked potentials.

Brief electrical pulses were applied to the pulp of individual pre-molar teeth of 14 healthy, adult volunteers via wire electrodes implanted and sealed in dentine. The sensation threshold was estimated in each individual by the Two-Alternative Forced-Choice Staircase (2AFCS) method. Seven, 5 or 4 stimulus intensities were employed which were equally spaced in a logarithmic scale between 10 microA above threshold and 500 microA.

EEG rhythm of alpha frequency in a 22-month-old child after strangulation.

A 22-month-old child suffered accidental strangulation, which rendered him comatose with intermittent generalized tonic-clonic seizures. His elecroencephalogram (EEG) displayed widespread activity of alpha frequency unreactive to sensory stimuli. Upon clinical recovery, a slower posterior EEG rhythm, attenuated by eye opening, was detected, which was more consistent with the patient's age.

Electrographic and clinical effects of intracarotid sodium amobarbital on bilateral myoclonic status epilepticus.

The effects of rapid intracarotid injection of 20 to 100 mg of sodium amobarbital were studied in three patients with bilateral myoclonic status epilepticus due to Jakob-Creutzfeldt disease, sequelae to anoxic encephalopathy, and hepatic coma, respectively. In each instance, the drug produced prompt abatement of clonic jerks contralaterally and attenuation of electroencephalographic epileptiform discharges ipsilaterally. These results suggest that the cerebral cortex actively participates in the elaboration of certain types of bilateral myoclonus in human beings.

Cerebral responses to electrical tooth pulp stimulation in man. An objective correlate of acute experimental pain.

The pulp of individual teeth of 17 normal adult volunteers was electrically stimulated via pairs of electrodes implanted into dentine. Computer-summated responses recorded from the surface of the head were composed of two concurrent sequences of events, one of which was seen maximally over midline areas and the other over the lower portions of the postcentral regions. Appropriate tests demonstrated that these wave forms represented cerebral tooth pulp-evoked potentials.

Congenital insensitivity to noxious stimuli.

Cerebral-evoked potentials were used to study a 25-year-old man, the older of two siblings with congenital insensitivity to all noxious stimuli, gross impairment of temperature perception, and anhidrosis. Electrical stimulation of tooth pulp consistently eliciting pain and cerebral responses in normal subjects evoked neither cerebral potentials nor painful or other sensations in our patient. However, ordinarily painful electric shocks to the skin of his face evoked cerebral responses as well as sensations lacking disagreeable qualities.