Cortical auditory dysfunction in benign rolandic epilepsy.

Purpose: To evaluate cortical auditory function, including speech recognition, in children with benign rolandic epilepsy (BRE).

Methods: Fourteen children, seven patients with BRE and seven matched controls, underwent audiometric and behavioral testing, simultaneous EEG recordings, and auditory-evoked potential recordings with speech and tones. Speech recognition was tested under multiple listening conditions.

A pilot study transitioning children onto levetiracetam monotherapy to improve language dysfunction associated with benign rolandic epilepsy.

Benign rolandic epilepsy (BRE) and Landau-Kleffner syndrome (LKS) are similar epilepsy syndromes with sleep-accentuated epileptiform activity, sporadic seizures, and language dysfunction. Levetiracetam has been associated with improved language function in LKS and seizure reduction in BRE. We hypothesized levetiracetam would improve language function in children with BRE.

Variability in cortical representations of speech sound perception.

Recent brain mapping studies have provided new insights into the cortical systems that mediate human speech perception. Electrocortical stimulation mapping (ESM) is a brain mapping method that is used clinically to localize cortical functions in neurosurgical patients. Recent ESM studies have yielded new insights into the cortical systems that mediate speech perception and how these systems vary as a function of individual differences.

Speech recognition impairments in patients with intractable right temporal lobe epilepsy.

Purpose: To evaluate speech recognition in patients with focal intractable epilepsy and surgical resections in the nondominant (right) hemisphere.

Methods: Speech recognition was tested prospectively, under different listening conditions, in 22 patients with right temporal lobe (11 patients) or extra-temporal lobe epilepsy. All were left-hemisphere dominant for language on preoperative intracarotid sodium amobarbital testing.

Cortical auditory systems: speech and other complex sounds.

The neural systems that mediate human perception of speech and other complex sounds are currently the focus of considerable research. Brain mapping studies have provided new insights into the cortical processing of complex sounds. Findings from three lines of brain mapping research--stroke-lesion, neuroimaging, and electrocortical mapping studies--are reviewed.

Cortical sites critical for speech discrimination in normal and impaired listeners.

We used statistical modeling to investigate variability in the cortical auditory representations of 24 normal-hearing epilepsy patients undergoing electrocortical stimulation mapping (ESM). Patients were identified as normal or impaired listeners based on recognition accuracy for acoustically filtered words used to simulate everyday listening conditions. The experimental ESM task was a binary (same-different) auditory syllable discrimination paradigm that both listener groups performed accurately at baseline.