Sl29 in each subject are automatically related to age-normals and the statistical variations from the norm for each topographical area are then represented graphically. Twenty-five children with specific reading/spelling disorders and twenty-five with specific mathematics disorders (diagnosed by psychological assesments) were subjected to 'Neurometrics' examination to determine whether this system would provide a more accurate means of correlating the areas of brain topography involved with each specific learning disability. It was hoped that a uniform area of dysfunction for each learning disability would be established. Results are inconclusive but reading-disabled children appear to have a preponderance of bilateral temporal lobe dysfunction.
P16.06 EEG ANALYSIS IN CHILDREN WITH MINIMAL CEREBRAL DYSFUNCTION (MCD).
G. Spiel (Vienna, Austria) Child neurologists and psychiatrists are often confronted with the problem of differential diagnosis in the field of performance or behaviour disorders in children of public school age. At present there is no accepted system of diseases or syndromes in this field. Various syndrome descriptions are published. In principle we make a distinction between the hyperkinetic-inattention syndrome and the group of global and specific learning disabilities, e.g. dyslexia. There are various synonyms and partly overlapping terms like Minimal Brain Damage (MBD) and Minimal Cerebral Dysfunction (MCD), which are used to denote children with disorders in conduct and performance, whereby a primary psychoreactive aetiology has to be excluded. In the present paper conventional recording, eyes closed, was carried out with a 16 channel EEG machine; 19 electrodes were connected in bipolar chains (10-20 system). Samples of 30 2-second epochs in longitudinal as well as in transverse derivations were taken for further automatic computer-assisted analysis. Power spectrum analysis as well as frequency analysis in the time domaine, based on minima-maxima detection were calculated. Population: 51 normal intelligent children of both sexes, aged 7-10 years, with various performance- or behaviour-disorders. Preliminary results will be presented.
P16.07 CHANGES IN S P O N T A N E O U S AND EVOKED BRAIN ACTIVITY IN CHILDREN WITH MINIMAL BRAIN DYSFUNCTION (MBD) BEFORE AND AFTER ADMINISTRATION OF A SINGLE DOSE OF PHENAMINE.
S. Slavchev and S. Popov (Sofia, Bulgaria) A group of 10 children with Minimal Brain Dysfunction,(MBD) aged 7-8 years, was submitted to an electrophysiological test battery: spontaneous EEG, power spectra, visual evoked responses (VER), auditory evoked responses (AER) to tone and to meaningful and meaningless verbal stimuli, before and after oral administration of 5 mgm. Phenamine (d, 1-amphetamine sulphate). BEFORE MEDICATION: Slow EEG patterns and an underdeveloped VER and AER were observed in most of the children. A well-organised, (adequate for that age), EEG,VER. and AER were observed in the rest of the children. No difference between AER to meaningful and meaningless stimuli was presented. AFTER MEDICATION: A 'maturation' in EEG, VER and AER was observed in most of the children, who had slow background EEG activity. Higher amplitude of the late negative components in AER to meaningless, than to meaningful verbal stimuli were observed, which is a pattern closer to the one in adults. Questions of therapeutic importance in MBD children are discussed.
P16.08 EEG S T U D I E S I N 10 CHILDREN WITH S O T O S SYNDROME.
A. Battaglia and A. Bani (Pisa, Italy) EEG investigations have been carried out in 10 children with proven SOTOS syndrome (a pattern of congenital anomalies associated with variable mental deficiency) aged between 4 months and 12 years. There were 8 boys and 2 girls. Peculiar fast activity at 12-28 Hz (up to 100/~V) with variable distribution was found in all cases. An excess of irregular, slow activity at I 7 Hz (up to 400 ~V) with patchy distribution was seen in all but 2 cases. Absence or poverty of normal rhythmic activities was found in 7 cases. An excess of irregular large amplitude (up to 400 p,V) slow activity was found in 7 cases, over the posterior half of the brain, usually facilitated by eye closure. Spikes a n d / o r sharp elements with multifocal distribution were seen in 7 patients, while definite complex wave forms were only present in 2. (these paroxysmal phenomena were, in 2 cases, facilitated during sleep). The neurophysiological findings, suggesting some cerebral involvement in this disorder, are discussed in relation to other recognizable patterns of human malformation classified in the same group.