ERP evidence of developmental changes in processing of faces.

Objectives: There is disagreement in the behavioural literature, as to whether face processing undergoes qualitative or quantitative change with age.

Methods: We studied event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with facial processing in 48 children (4-14 years) and 12 adults. Five categories of stimuli were presented: faces, cars, scrambled faces, scrambled cars, butterflies.

[Emergency electroencephalography during perinatal cerebral intensive care: indications and results].

The main contribution of EEG during intensive care in infants with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy is i) to help determine whether infants with subtle clinical manifestations present with epileptic seizures, ii) to determine whether paralyzed or heavily sedated infants present with convulsive phenomena, iii) to assess the therapeutical response to anticonvulsants, 4) to contribute, in combination with ultrasound scanning, to diagnostic evaluation of the severity of lesions, and to provide valuable prognostic informations via the analysis of the background activity, as normal EEG is highly predictive of normal outcome, whereas various abnormal EEG features are constantly associated with subsequent major neurological abnormalities or death. These EEG features are readily available from a very early stage and may both precede and be prognostically more sensitive than information obtained from ultrasound. Recording of neonatal electroencephalogram requires awareness of the normal development of electroencephalographic features in the newborn, skilled technicians, and experienced readers of EEG tracings.

[Emergency EEG and brain injuries].

The aim of this study is to review indications for emergency EEG in case of brain trauma. The authors emphasize the indication of emergency EEG for the diagnosis of either cerebral death or early post traumatic seizures, and for the monitoring of intensive neurological treatments. Emergency EEG and diagnosis of cerebral death has been reviewed in another issue of this journal.

[Acute reversible pan-dysautonomia: effect of erythromycin on gastrointestinal involvement].

We describe a case of acute autonomic neuropathy in an 18-year-old woman. Gut dysfunction was sufficiently severe for the patient to undergo laparotomy for suspected mechanical-intestinal obstruction before the diagnosis was made. Apart from the gut, other organs affected included the pupils, sweat and lachrymal glands.

Sleep EEG and developmental dysphasia: lack of a consistent relationship with paroxysmal EEG activity during sleep.

In order to clarify the relationship between developmental dysphasia and EEG abnormalities, paroxysmal activities during sleep were studied in a series of 24 children with expressive developmental dysphasia (mean age 8 years) and compared to a control group of 39 children (mean age 9 years). The children of both groups were selected excluding cases with prior history of neurological disease or epilepsy. In the control group, 37 children had normal sleep EEG while 2 children had paroxysmal abnormalities.

A note on the occurrence of unusual electroencephalographic sleep patterns in selected normal children.

Polysomnographic recordings were performed in 50 children free from any familial or personal history of seizure or neurologic diseases to evaluate the frequency of epileptiform and unusual electroencephalographic patterns in a normal population. A 9-year-old boy exhibited focal spikes that became bilateral with a density of 24% to 32% during slow wave sleep, and another boy showed a few spikes during slow wave sleep. In seven cases, 14- and 6-Hz rhythms were recorded, mostly in rapid eye movement sleep.

Influence of lateral gaze on electroencephalographic spectral power.

The effects of maintaining lateral gaze (as opposed to looking straight ahead) on electroencephalographic spectral power were tested in 12 right handed male subjects during eye opening (EO) and eye closure (EC). Our working hypothesis, based on Kinsbourne's paradigm, was that maintaining right lateral gaze activates the left hemisphere while maintaining left lateral gaze activates the right hemisphere, this activation resulting in a reduction in the spectral power over the hemisphere in question. Results showed that the variations in spectral power involved mainly the alpha frequency band.

Are frequent spike-waves during non-REM sleep in relation with an acquired neuro-psychological deficit in epileptic children?

In a population of 11 children with frequent spike waves during non REM sleep who had no neurological symptoms between birth and their first symptom, 3 groups were compared according to their neuropsychological performances. In the first group, the children had no intellectual deficit, in the second group, they had an acquired aphasia as in the Landau-Kleffner syndrome and in the third they had severe behavioural disorder and mental deterioration. The non REM sleep paroxysmic activity density tended to be highest in the third group, variable in the second group and moderate in the first group, and their topography was always generalized in the acute phase in groups II and III but asymmetrical in group I.

The influence of vigilance states on paroxysmal EEG activities and clinical seizures in children.

We studied the relationships between clinical variables and those related to the states of vigilance in 18 cases of benign partial epilepsy with centro-temporal spike-waves, 22 cases of definite symptomatic partial epilepsy, and 16 cases of undetermined partial epilepsy. The time of day during which the seizures appeared and the paroxysmal activity densities during non-REM and REM sleep are not distributed differently among the 3 electro-clinical types. However, the benign epilepsy with centro-temporal spikes group had more patients with sleep-sensitive paroxysmal activities.

Spectral analysis of the EEG (alpha rhythm) and activity in the left hemisphere: the effects of lateral gaze.

This study tests the effect of maintaining right and left lateral gaze during a writing task which preferentially implicates the left hemisphere using an asymmetry parameter calculated from the spectral power of the alpha rhythm (RP-LP/RP + LP) in a right-handed patient undergoing the same experimental regimen nine times. A six derivation EEG was recorded. Maintaining left lateral gaze (toward the active hemisphere) removes the lateralization found during writing while staring straight ahead whereas maintaining right lateral gaze (toward the side opposite the active hemisphere) results in slightly lower values which are however, not significantly different from those obtained during staring straight ahead.

[EEG spectral analysis in sylvian ischemia with normal value tracings].

The EEG power spectral analysis of 8 patients with a definite sylvian ischemia, the standard EEG of which was normal, was determined in comparison with the date of a control group (N = 14). We calculated the right-left power spectral differences in 4 symmetrical bipolar leads for 5 rhythms (delta: 1.2-3.

Two distinct classifications of adult epilepsies: by time of seizures and by sensitivity of the interictal paroxysmal activities to sleep and waking.

Two hundred and thirty-six adult epileptic outpatients were classified twice: firstly according to the time of seizures reported by the patient or his family in diurnal, nocturnal, awaking and diffuse epilepsies (Es) and secondly according to the sensitivity to sleep or waking of the interictal paroxysmal activities (PA) observed during a polysomnographic night session with a sleep PA increase, with a waking PA increase, with PA indifferent to sleep and waking or with few or no PA. The stability of the sensitivity of the PA to sleep and waking was 84%. Patients with diurnal epilepsy have more frequently myoclonic attacks and a lower seizure frequency.

[Various factors affecting the onset of paroxysmal nocturnal interictal activities in primary generalized epilepsy in adults].

The relationships between the states of vigilance and the interictal EEG, paroxysmal activities (PA) were studied in 20 adults with generalized primary epilepsy. Each patient was submitted to 1-5 nocturnal polygraphic recordings. Sleep and waking modify the PA densities: 8 patients had a waking PA increase, 7 a sleep PA increase and 5 exhibited no differences of PA density between sleep and waking.

Effect of salbutamol, a putative cerebral beta agonist on sleep stages and interictal epileptic discharges.

The effects of Salbutamol 1.5 mg in 250 ml dextrose solution was tested on 14 epileptic patients following a double blind cross-over design. Sleep parameters and interictal paroxysmal activities density were measured.

[Intracerebral hematoma in gamma-angio-encephalography].

The radionuclide angiography, of gamma-angio-encephalography (gamma-A.E.G.