Disengagement and inhibition of visual-spatial attention are differently impaired in children with rolandic epilepsy and Panayiotopoulos syndrome.
We assessed voluntary orientation and reorientation of visuospatial attention in 313 healthy 6- to 22-year-old participants, 30 children suffering from benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS) and 13 children with Panayiotopoulos syndrome (PS). The developmental section highlights the late development of reorienting skills. Only children with BECTS-R showed a strong tendency toward a rightward bias in attentional orientation. Additionally, a unilateral deficit of disengagement characterizes the patients with BECTS-R and comorbid ADHD. Right rolandic spikes seem to aggravate subclinical reorienting difficulties. Finally, children with PS failed to diffuse inhibition, except in the nearest area outside the attentional focus. This deficit could be attributed to the typical occipital-to-frontal spreading of the spikes in PS. By showing distinct attentional deficiencies according to the epileptic syndrome and the epileptic focus lateralization in BECTS, the results provide new evidence for alterations of attentional mechanisms by interictal epileptic activity, which probably contribute to learning difficulties.
Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage, CNRS UMR 5596, Lyon, France. Nathalie.bedoin@univ-lyon2.fr
Nathalie
N
Bedoin
Carolina
C
Ciumas
Céline
C
Lopez
Grégory
G
Redsand
Vania
V
Herbillon
Agathe
A
Laurent
Philippe
P
Ryvlin
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000209:etiology*; D001342:Autonomic Nervous System Diseases / Q000150:complications*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D002648:Child; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000150:complications*; D019305:Epilepsy, Rolandic / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult