Psychological Functioning of Aged Individuals With Normal and Abnormal Electroencephalograms

A Distinctive Electrographic Entity: Bursts of Rhythmical Temporal Theta

“…1 A four year study on this question was performed by Busse and Obrist, 2 who concluded that theta or delta waves, usually on the anterior-temporal area, are probably (but not proven to be) of ischemic origin. Furthermore, Busse et al 5 could find no definite relationship between temporal foci (including focal asymmetries and mild to severe focal slowing) and vascular pathology, as measured by routine physical and psychological examinations in a study of functioning community volunteers over age 60 yrs. Their selected pt population had a low incidence of medical or neurologic disorders, whereas all of our pts with BORTTwere referred because of some symptomatology and therefore had medical or neurologic diagnoses.…”

“…This finding was hypothesized as secondary to a greater sensitivity of the dominant hemisphere which has the greatest need for oxygen. In a study of focal EEG asymmetries, including mild to severe focal slowing (not specifically BORTI), Busse et al 5 found 78% of all temporal foci on the left side. Little relationship was found between handedness and lateralization of these foci.…”

Electroencephalography and computerised tomography in vascular and non-vascular dementia in old age.

“…Our findings are in agreement with this (Table 1); dominant delta activity was found only in those with moderate or severe intellectual impairment. Localised temporal slow-wave activity is common in normal old age (Busse et al, 1956). Slow-wave activity in other sites has been noted to be considerably more common in dementia of vascular origin (Luce and Rothschild, 1952;Kiloh et al, 1972) than, for instance, in Alzheimer's disease (Gordon and Sim, 1967), and this difference is supported in the present study (Table 1) where there was a reasonable correlation between physical signs, the presence of a visible infarct, and the site of slow-wave activity.…”

Handbook of Neuropsychology and Aging

“…The incidence of sharp wave or spike paroxysms rose from 2% to 10-11% after the fifth decade. Several other studies have also noted higher rates of focal abnormalities in the elderly which generally have not been associated with neuropsychological abnormalities (Busse, Barnes, Friedman, & Kelty, 1956;Silverman, Busse, & Barnes, 1955), although other investigators have demonstrated subclinical abnormalities (Visser, 1987). Torres, Faoro, Loewenson, and Johnson (1983) found 52% of their normal asymptomatic elderly subjects to have an identifiable EEG abnormality.…”