Automatisms Associated With the Absence of Petit Mal Epilepsy

AUTOMATISMS have long attracted the neurologist's attention, but their occurrence has become too widely regarded as a pathognomonic sign of lobe epilepsy. Since Penfield 1 reported the production of by stimulating gray matter of mesial lobe adjacent to the insula, many neurologists have inferred that an automatism is synonymous with a discrete discharging focus in the lobe. The designation of temporal lobe automatisms used by investigators 2 in describing clinical neurophysiologic studies has led to the general assumption that occurring in lobe epilepsy have specific characteristics which set them apart from other automatisms. 3 This notion evolved in spite of well documented descriptions of in association with the attacks of petit mal epilepsy; indeed absence with automatisms is an integral part of the nonfocal section of the international classification. 4 This study was conducted to determine the nature of which occur