Electroencephalographic microstates as a potential neurophysiological marker differentiating bilateral from unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy.

Objective: Electroencephalographic (EEG) microstate abnormalities have been documented in different neurological disorders. We aimed to assess whether EEG microstates are altered also in patients with temporal epilepsy (TLE) and whether they show different activations in patients with unilateral TLE (UTLE) and bilateral TLE (BTLE).

Methods: Nineteen patients with UTLE, 12 with BTLE, and 15 healthy controls were enrolled.

Neuropsychological Functioning in Bilateral versus Unilateral Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.

Although relatively specific anatomo-electro-clinical features of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) with bilateral ictal involvement (bitemporal epilepsy-BTLE) have been described, differentiating between BTLE and unilateral TLE (UTLE) remains challenging. Surgery is often the treatment of choice for drug-resistant UTLE, whereas its use is more controversial in BTLE. It is currently unclear whether neuropsychological assessment can contribute to the differential diagnosis.

Hemispherotomy in Infants with Hemimegalencephaly: Long-Term Seizure and Developmental Outcome in Early Treated Patients.

Hemimegalencephaly (HME) is a rare brain congenital malformation, consisting in altered neuronal migration and proliferation within one hemisphere, which is responsible for early onset drug-resistant epilepsy. Hemispherotomy is an effective treatment option for patients with HME and drug-resistant epilepsy. Surgical outcome may be variable among different surgical series, and the long-term neuropsychological trajectory has been rarely defined using a standardized neurocognitive test.

Neuropsychological and behavioral profiles of self-limited epileptic syndromes of childhood: a cross-syndrome comparison.

Childhood epilepsy with centro-temporal spikes (CECTS), Childhood absence epilepsy (CAE) and Panayiotopoulos syndrome (PS) are some of the most common pediatric epileptic syndromes. Despite the relatively benign (self-limited) course of epilepsy, current evidence suggests that these conditions are associated with an increased risk of neuropsychological and behavioral comorbidities. This study provides a cross-epileptic syndromes' comparison reporting on the cognitive and behavioral profile of a cohort of 32 children with CECTS (n = 14), CAE (n = 10) and PS (n = 8), aged 6 to 15 years old.

Towards Consensus on Good Practices for the Use of New Technologies for Intervention and Support in Developmental Dyslexia: A Delphi Study Conducted among Italian Specialized Professionals.

The use of new technologies for intervention in developmental dyslexia is steadily growing. In order to better understand the needs, the expectations, and the attitudes of Italian expert health professionals concerning such technologies, a national survey was conducted applying the Delphi methodology. Ad-hoc questionnaires were sent out to a group of eighteen experts over three successive rounds, and anonymously collected responses were aggregated and shared with the group after each round, aiming to reach a consensus on the proposed response.

Implicit cognitive flexibility in self-limited focal epilepsy of childhood: An HD-EEG study.

Self-limited focal epilepsy of childhood (SFEC) is often related to mild impairments in several neuropsychological domains, including cognitive flexibility, which is generally considered a process requiring volition and attention. However, recent evidence showed that it can be implicitly adjusted exploiting simple 'stimulus-response' associations as for example, the probability of the stimulus occurrence. Here, we evaluated the capability to implicitly extract environmental patterns of regularities and use them to flexibly adjust proactive control motor control.

Clinical implications of interictal epileptiform discharges in cognitive functioning in CEC syndrome with evolution into epileptic encephalopathy.

In epileptic encephalopathies (EE), interictal epileptiform discharges (IEDs) contribute to cognitive impairment. The EE process has been studied in a patient affected by epilepsy with occipital calcification and celiac disease (CEC syndrome) by combining the administration of brain area stimulus specific (visual and auditory) reaction times (RT) during continuous EEG monitoring with the off-line reconstruction of auditory and visual evoked potentials (EP). Visual RT and VEP were abnormal only if recorded concomitantly to the IEDs.