Absence seizures effects on reading revealed by video-electroencephalography

The effects of absence seizures on reading have not been studied. The purpose of this paper is to show some alterations in reading during absence seizures in patients with video-electroencephalographic recordings.

Patients were selected if absences seizures were the only type of seizures. They were studied at rest with eyes closed and while reading aloud a text by simultaneous bipolar electroencephalographic and video recordings.

Eight patients were studied with 34 events. Absences ranged from 1-12 events in twenty-five minutes recording, seizures duration ranged from 1.5-16 seconds. Brief seizures results on non-stop reading, but reading arrest with latency of 1-3 seconds after seizure onset were present in the longer events. Post-absence amnesia ranged from 1-4.5 seconds. Re-start reading occurs mainly in other reading place in the text, but two patients in one event re-started reading in the right place. Classic symptoms during absence were present and reading alterations found were: reading arrest, lost of reading point, bradylexia, dysprosodic reading, grapheme substitution, reading loudness reduction, repeating of phrases. Events occurred without patient seizure awareness, except in one patient by means of the time lost between onset to the end of the event.

This study showed that acute reading alterations during absence seizures are frequent in longer seizures, producing many neuropsychological symptoms that alter reading without seizure awareness.