Non-lesional Reflex Epilepsy Evoked by Non-verbal Higher Cerebral Activities

Abstract

Clinical characteristics of 10 patients we experienced in addition to 64 patients thus far reported in literature having reflex seizures induced by non-verbal higher cerebral activities were summarized as follows: 1) onset age at around 14, 2) clinical seizures of generalized nature, especially characterized by myoclonic jerks involving arms occasionally combined with or evolving to generalized convulsions, 3) generalized epileptic discharges predominating in the central area activated almost exclusively by posing nonverbal neuropsychological tasks, 4) the precipitating factors include a combination of complicated processes of sequential spatial thinking and voluntary motor activities (including ideation of the voluntary acts) involving fingers and/or arms such as: calculation, drawing, construction, writing, game playing, complex finger manipulation. 5) concentration of attention and stress associated with thinking and voluntary acts were facilitating factor. The transcoding processes of thinking into voluntary acts may be affected in this type of idiopathic reflex epilepsy. The rarity of language-induced epilepsy including reading epilepsy and conversely the relatively high incidence of non-verbally induced epilepsy in Japanese population will require further studies on a transcultural and linguistic basis. © 1992, JAPAN EPILEPSY SOCIETY. All rights reserved.