[Rolandic epilepsy: neurophysiological aspects]

Rolandic epilepsy (RE) is a common epileptic syndrome, which child neurologists often see. However, many problems concerning RE remains unsolved despite previous extensive studies. This paper discusses the current status of knowledge and our own observation especially on neurophysiological aspects of RE, such as the morphology of rolandic discharge (RD), effectiveness of clonazepam on RD, rhythmic slow activity, extreme somatosensory evoked potentials, and generator of RD. RD is characteristic of RE, and sometimes appears to be enigmatic to child neurologists. RE is a representative epileptic syndrome in childhood, and should be investigated further to address its underlying mechanism.