Abstract

The 25-year-old right-handed woman suffering from temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) was referred to our centre for presurgical evaluation. MRI showed a right-sided hippocampal sclerosis. During video-EEG-recorded seizures, abdominal aura was followed by oral automatisms, during which she was completely reactive to external stimuli, although she was unable to speak. Ictal EEG showed right temporal seizure pattern, without contralateral propagation. She had abnormal speech postictally. Speech-activated functional transcranial Doppler sonography revealed right-sided speech dominance. She has become seizure free after a right-sided amygdalo-hippocampectomy. In our patient, contradictory clinical ictal lateralising signs (automatisms with preserved responsiveness vs. ictal and postictal dysphasia) occurred during right-, speech-dominant-sided seizures. This is the first report when automatisms with preserved consciousness occurred during a seizure originating and involving the speech-dominant hemisphere.

Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call