Motor trajectories in automatisms and their quantitative analysis

To quantitatively analyze trajectory of movement in automatisms with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE).

Twenty markers were attached to chosen body parts of patients, and 10 videos of seizures were recorded. The obtained videos were converted into digital matrices. Motor trajectories were established, the amplitude, frequency, limb distal-proximal amplitude ratio, and shoulder-abdominal amplitude ratio were calculated, analyzed and compared between two types of epilepsy.

The average of transient limb distal-proximal ratios in automatism patients with TLE was >3, which suggested that distal limb movements during TLE were predominant. However, the transient limb distal-proximal ratio in patients with FLE was <3, which indicated the predominance of proximal movements. The differences of motor trajectories between these two types of epilepsy were statistically significant.

The quantification system may pave a new way for semiology study of epilepsy and is important in differential diagnosis of different types of epilepsy.