Assessment through P300 of epileptic and non-epileptic children and school performance

Abstract

Learning disability is common in epileptic children. Epilepsy has been associated with disorders of intelligence. Cognitive potential (P300) is considered to be a clinical aid in the neurophysiological measurement of the cognitive process. Ninety-nine children between the ages of 10 years and 11 years and 11 months formed our sample, with good and poor school performance. Group I, non-epileptic, had 64 children of whom 32 had good and 32 poor school performance. Group II, epileptic, had 35 children, of whom 21 had good and 15 poor school performance. No significant difference in P300 latency was found between Groups I and II. When groups were stratified based on school performance, Group I children with good school performance had P300 latency of 336 ms, while the ones with poor school performance had latency of 382 ms. Group II children with good school performance had P300 latency of 363, while the ones with poor school performance had latency of 400 ms. There was a statistically significant difference between the non-epileptic children with good school performance and the children with poor school performance, epileptic or not.