Research Interests:
We assessed voluntary orientation and reorientation of visuospatial attention in 313 healthy 6- to 22-year-old participants, 30 children suffering from benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS) and 13 children with... more
We assessed voluntary orientation and reorientation of visuospatial attention in 313 healthy 6- to 22-year-old participants, 30 children suffering from benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS) and 13 children with Panayiotopoulos syndrome (PS). The developmental section highlights the late development of reorientingskills. Only childrenwith BECTS-R showed a strong tendency toward a rightward bias in attentional orientation. Additionally, a unilateral deficit of disengagement characterizes the patients with BECTS-R and comorbid ADHD.Right rolandic spikes seem to aggravate subclinical reorienting difficulties. Finally, children with PS failed to diffuse inhibition, except in the nearest area outside the attentional focus. This deficit could be attributed tothe typical occipital-to-frontal spreading of the spikes in PS. By showing distinct attentional deficiencies according to the epileptic syndrome and the epileptic focus lateralization in BECTS, the results provide newevidence for alterations of attentional mechanisms by interictal epileptic activity, which probably contributeto learning difficulties.