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Thisinvestigation wascarried outontwopatients suffering fromso-called primary subcortical epilepsy. Serial studies weremadebothofvariations inthe amountofparoxysmal electrical activity recorded fromthebrain during theperformance ofpsychological tests andofchanges intestperformance in thepresence ofparoxysmal discharges. Thereisno doubtthatchanges inthealpha rhythm canbeshowntoaccompany alterations in behaviour inallsubjects. Theparoxysmal E.E.G. discharges recorded fromepileptics haverarely been studied fromthispoint ofview. Itis,however, widely heldthatpetit malattacks donotoccur randomly withrespect tomental state. Lennoxand Lennox(1960), whotended toequate theelectroencephalographic dysrhythmia withtheclinical ictus, considered thatpetit malattacks occurless often whenthepatient iskeptoccupied. According toPond(1961), petit malattacks maybeprecipitated byemotional disturbance. Inthepresent investigationa series ofE.E.G.examinations andof psychological tests wascarried outparipassuin order todetermine whether there weresystematic differences intheamountofparoxysmal activity recorded indifferent test situations. Suchdifferences aswerefoundwerethenfurther explored inan attempt todiscover thefactors responsible forthem. Autonomic function seemed tobeonevariable of possible significance, andrespiration andpulse rate weretherefore recorded throughout. Theinvestigation wasalsoplanned topermit the studyofchanges intestperformance during the occurrence ofgeneralized paroxysmal discharges. Patients wereselected whoseE.E.G.records contained brief generalized wave-spike discharges, without clinical accompaniments. A distinction is oftendrawn(Kiloh andOsselton, 1961)between such'inter-seizure' discharges andtheelectrical disturbance associated withpetit mal attacks. However, brief discharges donotdiffer qualitatively intheir E.E.G. parameters frombursts oflonger duration andmight beexpected tohavebehavioural correlates whichcouldbemeasured bya more refined methodthanclinical observation. A number ofstudies havebeenmadeofresponses topsychological tests during brief discharges butthefindings areconflicting. Schwab(1941) andCornil, Gastaut, andCorriol (1951) stated thatreaction times are delayed, butPrechtl, Boeke, andSchut (1961) found noimpairment intherateofperformance onaserial reaction test, andMilstein andStevens (1961) foundno impairment inauditory learning and avoidance conditioning during brief generalized discharges. KooiandHovey(1957) recorded spontaneous paroxysmal discharges inepileptics during intelligence testing. Theystated that although thequestions wereusually heardan adequate solution wasnevergiven during bursts ofbilateral synchronous activity. However, theydonotstate theduration andnumberofthedischarges, andit isnotclear whether thereported association is significant. Although these findings areconflicting, there are |
