SLEEP EEG AND DEVELOPMENTAL DYSPHASIA - LACK OF A CONSISTENT RELATIONSHIP WITH PAROXYSMAL EEG ACTIVITY DURING SLEEP

In order to clarify the relationship between developmental dysphasia a nd EEG abnormalities, paroxysmal activities during sleep were studied in a series of 24 children with expressive developmental dysphasia (me an age 8 years) and compared to a control group of 39 children (mean a ge 9 years). The children of both groups were selected excluding cases with prior history of neurological disease or epilepsy. In the contro l group, 37 children had normal sleep EEG while 2 children had paroxys mal abnormalities. In the dysphasic group, epileptic abnormalities wer e observed in 9 cases, rare in 4 cases and frequent in 5 cases (densit y: 2.5 to 66.2% of total sleep time). Nevertheless, paroxysmal abnorma lities did not reach the frequency described in the Landau-Kleffner sy ndrome, and it is unlikely that EEG abnormalities could have produced dysphasia.