Abstracts

Rationale: Benign Childhood Epilepsy with Centrotemporal Spikes (BECTS) is a common childhood epilepsy syndrome with characteristic clinical and EEG features. Although the term “benign” implies an innocuous status, recent reports have called this into question. Many children with BECTS experience neuropsychological deficits that may persist after seizure remission. There are reports of deficits in auditory verbal learning, executive functioning, and visual and verbal attention (Croona et al., 1999; Giordani, 2006). However, not many studies have used a control group for comparison and most studies have examined children with long-standing seizures, and the neurodevelopmental course is unclear. There is also a limited examination of social, behavioral, and adaptive functioning. The current study provides an examination of the cognitive and behavioral findings in children with new onset BECTS compared to healthy control subjects. Methods: Fifteen children with new onset BECTS and 15 age and gender matched control subjects were examined. All BECTS subjects were diagnosed within 18 months of study inclusion. The children underwent comprehensive neuropsychological assessment. Parents were interviewed and completed various questionnaires including the Behavior rating Inventory of Executive Functioning (BRIEF). The BRIEF is a well-validated questionnaire examining parent rated executive functioning. Results: An analyses of variances (ANOVA) revealed significant group differences in the neuropsychological executive functioning domain F(1, 28) = 4.26, p = .049, η2 = .13, as well as across two of the three domains measuring parent rated executive functioning via the BRIEF, namely, the Meta Cognition Index and the Global Executive Composite F(1, 28) = 5.13, p = .031 , η2 = .16; F(1, 28) = .44, p = .046 , η2 = .14. Significant correlations were also noted between age of seizure onset and intelligence, language, and memory r (13) = .72, p < .001; r (13) = .63, p = .02; r (13) = .59, p = .03, respectively. More specifically, earlier age of onset was associated with poorer performance. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that neuropsychological and adaptive functioning deficits are present early in the course of BECTS. More specifically, executive functioning may be a vulnerable domain for children with BRE. Results also indicate that performance in other neuropsychological domains is related to age of seizure onset.