Introduction:

Benign childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BCECTS) and childhood absence epilepsy (CAE), are well-known and clearly defined childhood epileptic syndromes. Both conditions have a number of features in common, including an early age of onset, a good prognosis, and a genetic component. Attention problems are commonly reported in children with BCECTS and CAE, and can interfere with academic performance and daily functioning. The aim of this study is to compare attentional functions in BCECTS and CAE using a computerized test battery.

Methods:

21 children with CAE (10 boys, 11 girls), 21 with BCECTS (12 boys, 9 girls) and 24 controls (12 boys, 12 girls) with comparable IQ (>80) matched for age and sex were enrolled. All participants were tested with a computerized test battery based on a multicomponent model of attention, which included tasks measuring selective attention, impulsivity, focused attention, divided attention, alertness, and vigilance.

Results:

Results showed that children with CAE and BCECTS have attentional impairments in several measures of selectivity of attention (divided attention, focused attention and selective attention) associated with impulsivity as compared with healthy controls. Posthoc analysis revealed no difference between CAE and BCECTS patients.

Conclusion:

Children with CAE and BCECTS showed impairments in divided, focused and selective attention compared with control subjects. Furthermore, patients with CAE and BCECTS did not show significative difference between them. Our results support recent evidence that BCECTS and CAE share some common pathophysiological mechanisms.