Abstracts

Rationale: The causes that lead to the manifestation of a seizure caused by the reading of printed texts in Reading Epilepsy (RE) are not entirely clear. Since its definition by Bickford and collaborators in 1956, theories have contributed from the Neurological, Ophthalmological, Linguistic and Psychological point of view, but studies of diseases related to Graphic Design and possible typographic legibility factors involved are almost null.This study tries to demonstrate that the factors associated with family, size and length of line in printed texts, are related to the facilitation of abnormal electroencephalographic activity when reading aloud. Methods: Two populations were selected (control and experimental), of both genders with ages between 10 and 25 years (median 16 years), each one of 10 subjects, to demonstrate the difference between brain electrical activity in apparently healthy persons, and the affected with Absence epilepsy (AE) and Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME), two types of epilepsies with important index of relation in RE, according to the medical literature. General data was recorded, pathological history inherited-family, personal history non-pathological, perinatal history and current condition. In the reading test's design was applied typographic legibility factors for optimal and minimal text, printed in six stories of myths and legends. The survey was recorded in three moments (Baseline, Hyperventilation and Reading) through a Grass Model 8-channel electroencephalograph; the electrodes were placed according to the International 10-20 System. Results: The changes produced in two different periods were analyzed: Baseline and Hyperventilation; Baseline and Reading. A significant difference was obtained on the second time (p. 0.007), attributing its cause to the legibility factors studied. Of the three registered moments, reading caused in 13 patients (9 experimental, 4 control), a higher rate of electrical brain abnormality, which proves a highly significant statistical association. The electroencephalographic abnormalities were the sharp wave, spike, spike-slow wave and slow wave, predominantly in the left temporal lobe and of minimal percentage in the right; of focal onset but also bilateral and generalized. Conclusions: The short column width which was between 20 and 28 characters per line, integrated by letters and spaces of interwords, was a factor related to the increase of abnormal brain electrical activity in the sample studied, with a frequency of restarts (p. 0.019) and repeats (p. 0.005) during the reading aloud. This research concludes that the bad reading aloud, and the ocular fatigue, could be subject to the employment of certain typographic legibility factors. The results should be corroborated in future studies.