Abstracts

Patients often report that they can terminate seizures with certain cognitive tasks. Case reports decribe the ability of cognitive tasks to suppress/interrupt seizure activity. A systematic review of such experiences has not yet been documented in the literature. Is it not known whether cognitive activity arresting seizures is hemispheric specific, and whether it correlates with side of seizure onset., 20 adult patients with mesial temporal epilepsy were retrospectivley interviewed by telephone or in writing. All patients had unilateral temporal lobe seizure onset and underwent temporal lobectomy. Patients were asked to describe, whether they developed a cognitive method/technique to terminate seizures, when they were preceded by an aura. In addition a list of cognitive activities specific to each hemisphere was presented to all patients., Seven patients reported cognitive acitivities that terminated seizures after an aura occured.Five patients had right mesial temporal seizure onset, two had left mesial temporal seizure onset. Patients with right mesial temporal onset seemed to control their seizures with praying, while patients with a left mesial temporal onset controlled their seizures via rubbing or tapping the contralateral affected limb (see table). The small number of patients precluded statistical analysis., Despite being a limited study, this survey provides an interesting observation. Some patients with right sided mesial temporal seizure onset can terminate their seizures with right hemispheric activities such as praying. Some select patients with a left mesial temporal seizure onset are able to terminate their seizures using left hemispheric tasks, such as talking, writing, tapping and rubbing the right side. Neurocognitive tasks represented in close proximity to the seizure focus could influence electrical seizure activity. Neurocognitive therapy could evolve as treatment option for epilepsy. These findings need to be confirmed in a larger prospective study with objective validation.[table1],