Abstracts

Rationale: Benign focal epilepsy in childhood with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS) is one of the most common forms of epilepsy in childhood1. The lack of attention is often observed in this children associated with the dysfunction of circuits, as far as the centrotemporal outbreak. The maturity of the functional anatomy of this circuit occurs between childhood and adolescence, a period in which BECTS develops, thus showing epileptic syndrome that can interfere with the attention ability, despite the distance of focus2,3. The relevance of these dysfunctions is subtle, and their correlation with the seizures or electroencephalographic abnormalities is not clear2. The aim of this project is to map these patients and evaluate the cognitive functions through fMRI and neuropsychological tests. The results shown here are from a study in 15 patients with BECTS,8 - 14 years, underwent to EEG and video EEG using two paradigms of visual attentionMethods: Paradigms of Visual Attention(VA) and Visual Continuous Performance(CVP) were developed using a commercial e-prime. The instruction was to press one button for all images and not press when the 'car' would follow a 'truck.' Most of the conditions were valid, in alternating blocks the number of pixels was reduced to increase the rate of errors. The interval between blocks was 30 seconds and the subjects performed a simple motor task similar to block stimulation. Analyses were performed using the FSL, filters were used to correct time and correct movement. The activation maps were obtained using the GLM4 with FRH(hemodynamic response function) given by two Poisson functions with peaks of 4 and 8 seconds after stimulation. The map of statistical significance was obtained nonparametricallyResults: The average response time and accuracy rate were 0446msec and 74%(VA) and 0423msec and 69%(VCP). Activation maps: AV-main areas include anterior cingulated, right DLPFC, borders of the right intraparietal sulcus, bilateral inferior frontal gyrus and cerebellum, VCP, the main areas include anterior cingulated, right DLPFC, borders of the right intraparietal sulcus, bilateral inferior frontal gyrus and left cerebellum5Conclusions: The paradigm and equipments developed for the current work are perfectly able to map visual attention in children with idiopathic epilepsy in a standardized and reproductible way. The areas of activation in both paradigms are consistent with previous studies in literature; however this study includes much younger subjects in a disease which can lead to cognitive impairments not totally understood and not studied in a prospective design. In the future when we compare these results with data from healthy controls, which are being acquired and new data acquired in the same patients may be able to contribute to the understanding of the impact of benign childhood epilepsy in some cognitive functions.