Magnetoencephalographic pattern of epileptiform activity in children with early-onset autism spectrum disorders

Comments on Hughes JR. A review of recent reports on autism: 1000 studies published in 2007. Epilepsy & Behavior 2008;13:425–437 and Hughes JR. Update on autism: A review of 1300 reports published in 2008. Epilepsy & Behavior 2009;16:569–589.

“…However, although they found no statistically significant difference in epileptiform activity in those who had regression compared with those without regression, scrutiny of the results reveals that there was a trend towards greater epileptiform activity in the group that had regression, suggesting the possibility that larger numbers of patients might have yielded a statistically significant result. In addition, Hughes drew attention to results from a study that found more frequent epileptiform discharges in children with autism but without regression than in children with autism but without regression [9], as well as to results from a magnetoencephalography (MEG) study [10] that found epileptiform abnormalities in all study participants with autism. At the time of the Hughes reviews, this debate was unresolved.…”

Update on autism: A review of 1300 reports published in 2008

“…One group [230] claimed that most autism patients (22) had no EEG abnormalities (! ), but all children (!)…”

Landau Kleffner Syndrome: Neuroradiology Aspect

“…LKS Patient's verbal auditory agnosia can, therefore, be understood as local epilepsy of the auditory cortex, activated by sounds. MEG alone or combined with EEG has proved useful in identifying the sources of epileptic activity in LK, as well as in childhood epileptic autistic regression disorders (Sobel et al,2000;Muñoz Yunta et al,2008).…”