Author:

Keywords:

Adolescent, Anticonvulsants, Autonomic Nervous System Diseases, Child, Cohort Studies, Electric Impedance, Electrocardiography, Electroencephalography, Epilepsy, Absence, Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe, Female, Humans, Male, Respiratory Mechanics, Seizures, SISTA, Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Clinical Neurology, Neurosciences & Neurology, Epilepsy, Respiration, Autonomic, Childhood, AUTONOMIC SYMPTOMS, HEART-RATE, SEIZURES, APNEA, ABNORMALITIES, SPIKES, 1103 Clinical Sciences, Neurology & Neurosurgery, 3209 Neurosciences, 5202 Biological psychology, 5203 Clinical and health psychology

Abstract:

Autonomic dysfunctions occur during but also in between seizures. During seizures, the direct involvement of central autonomic control centers cause specific changes in heart rate and respiration. The pathophysiology of autonomic dysfunctions that are observed in the interictal period is more difficult to explain. These alterations are most likely due to changes in the epileptic network and/or to a lesser extent due to direct interictal spike activity disturbing central autonomic centers. The aim of our study is to investigate whether ictal and interictal respiratory changes do occur in temporal lobe and absence epilepsy in children. We hypothesize that the interictal autonomic changes are due to changes in the neuronal network, by studying epilepsy patients with normal interictal background EEG.