HP02: Auditory pathways and epilepsy as part of language development impairment (a preliminary study)

Abstract

To estimate the impact of child epilepsy on brainstem auditory pathways as part of language development impairment. Introduction: Epilepsy is commonly associated with a language development impairment (LDI). In fact, neurophysiological maturation of cortical neuronal networks are impaired and can result in troubles of the acquisition of cognitive skills that are fundamental to the learning process particularly language. Then language is clearly caused by cortical hyperexcitability of neurons, but involvement of subcortical pathways still unclear. Materials and methods: It’s a retrospective study that collected data of children aged between two and six years-old referred for an LDI exploration. BER and electroencephalogram (EEG) were performed. Children were divided into two groups: 1st group (G1) with a pathological EEG and 2nd group (G2) with a normal EEG. They were matched in age. Children with a non-epileptic encephalopathy were excluded. Latency I, I-III, III-V and I-V intervals were compared between the two groups. t-Student test was used. Results: G1 and G2 included 15 subjects each one. Their mean-age was 3,7±0,9 years-old. Each group included pathological (G1: n=11; G2: n=7) and normal BER. G1 had longer mean I-latency (1,7±0,36 ms) and increased I-III (2,4±0,32 ms), III-V (1,9±0,42 ms) and I-V intervals (4,4±0,54 ms) than G2 (respectively: 1,6±0,25 ms; 2,3±0,15 ms; 1,8±0,19 ms; 4,2±0,23 ms) without a statistical significance. Conclusions: Children with epilepsy showed more altered BER, which could be explained by maturational delay of auditory pathways secondary to epilepsy independently to the impairment of central temporal auditory processing and language skills.