Temporal recruitment of cortical network involved in reading epilepsy with paroxysmal alexia: A combined EEG/MEG study.

Reading epilepsy is a reflex epilepsy syndrome distinguished in typical and atypical forms. The typical form is characterized by perioral myoclonic jerks evoked by reading; in the atypical form patients can experiment also visual symptoms, dizziness, a-or dyslexia. The revised terminology for seizures and epilepsies reported reflex epilepsies as electroclinical syndromes with less specific age relationship. To better understand the cortical mechanism of this syndrome, EEG and magnetoencephalography (MEG) signals were simultaneously recorded in a patient with reflex reading epilepsy. Based on electrophysiological and neuroanatomical constraints, LORETA algorithm applied on MEG epileptic discharges revealed spatiotemporal pattern involvement of different cerebral areas during the reflex seizure. Our results identified in the supplementary motor area the anatomical core of reading epileptogenic network. The present study hypothesizes that the pathological process in reading epilepsy involves the brain network sustaining physiological reading and that each cerebral area of the "system of reading" can induce reflex seizures when hyperactive.