CHANGES OF EVOKED SLOW CORTICAL POTENTIAL (CONTINGENT NEGATIVE-VARIATION) IN EPILEPSY

Contingent negative variation (CNV) was examined in 14 epileptic patie nts (5 with generalized and 9 with partial fits) both before and after 24 hours of sleep deprivation. Background CNV indices differed signif icantly by higher amplitudes of nearly all CNV components from the one s of healthy individuals. Amplitudes of postimperative negative waves (PINW) and general waves differed most of all. After sleep deprivation there was an PINW increase as well as the tendency to the late CNV co mponent amplitude's increase. Elevation of CNV amplitudes after sleep deprivation was more pronounced in patients in which the deprivation p rovoked development of epileptic fits in comparison with patients whic h endured sleep deprivation rather favourably. The changes revealed in CNV components of the patients with epilepsy were considered in terms of disorders in regulatory mechanisms at the level of apical dendrite s of cortical neurons' excitation.