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The aim of this study is to evaluate the clinical, electroencephalographic and polysomnographic features of patients presenting with parasomnias. Cases who were admitted for differentiating parasomnias from epilepsy were included in the study. Clinical features of cases were recorded and routine sleep electroencephalography was obtained from all cases. Cases whose symptoms strongly suggested nocturnal seizure underwent all night video electroencephalography monitoring. Polysomnography was obtained to evaluate the quality of breathing from patients whose symptoms suggested obstructive sleep apnea. Twenty-three patients with no neurological disorder were included in the study. The mean age of the patients was 11.7 ± 2.8 [7-17] years. Twelve patients (52 %) presented with sleep terrors and 11 patients (48 %) presented with sleep walking. All of the patients underwent a routine sleep electroencephalographic study and 15 patients (65 %) whose symptoms strongly suggested nocturnal epilepsy underwent long-term video electroencephalographic evaluation. Ten patients (43 %) underwent polysomnographic study. Three patients (20 %) who underwent long-term video electroencephalographic evaluation were diagnosed to have nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy and two patients (20 %) who underwent polysomnography had pathological sleep apnea. Eleven patients (48 %) had a psychiatric disorder like major depression, anxiety disorder, hyperactivity disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Childhood cases presenting with parasomnias should be searched for nocturnal epileptic disorders, sleep disordered breathing and psychiatric disorders.

This study investigates the cognitive levels of tugboat captains, key players during port manoeuvres, which are a crucial part of sea navigation. The objective is to reveal the main neurophysiological findings related to the measurements of the tugboat captains' brain activity during both rest and actual manoeuvring performance and to investigate the relationship between this brain activity and situational awareness. The study employed an experimental research method. Brain waves of the tugboat captains were recorded using the Emotiv X EEG device and the Emotiv Pro v2.0 program during real port manoeuvres which is a part of the sea navigation. Situational awareness levels were tried to be determined by analysing the obtained values in the Brain Products Vision Analyzer 2.1 software. The study examined the cognitive states of four tugboat captains during 16 manoeuvres and resting, focusing on the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)/Band power graph values. Within the scope of the research non-parametric Friedman Test with five variables [Resting State (RS), 1st Manoeuvre Group, 2nd Manoeuvre Group, 3rd Manoeuvre Group, and 4th Manoeuvre Group] to analyse the FFT values of the participants. Post-hoc comparisons were calculated using Bonferroni correction. The results showed no difference in alpha wave power, while delta, theta, beta, and gamma power decreased. The primary outcome of the research indicates that professional tugboat captains, who were the participants of the study, exhibited consistent situational awareness levels both during manoeuvring and resting moments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intermittent rhythmic delta activities are electroencephalographic discharges with uniform morphology, at a frequency of 4 Hz or less, containing at least six cycles, lost by eye opening and stimulation. These are called "plus" if concomitant theta or higher frequency rapid activity or spike, sharp wave activity is present. This group has a stronger relationship with epileptiform abnormality. We aimed to discuss the clinical presentations, and nomenclature of intermittent rhythmic delta activities with three case reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Introduction: The aim of this study was to evaluate cognitive impairment in patients having epilepsy or psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNESs) using selected neuropsychological tests at different time periods related to the seizure. Methods: In this study, selected neurocognitive tests were administered to the patients. Within 24 h, the previously applied neurocognitive tests were repeated within 24 h following the observation of typical seizures when monitoring and normalizing electroencephalography (EEG) activity. Basal neurocognitive tests were also administered to the healthy control group, and repeat neurocognitive evaluation was performed within 24-96 h. Results: The basal neurocognitive evaluation revealed that verbal learning and memory scores as well as Stroop test interference time were significantly lower in the PNES group compared with those in the controls. In the basal cognitive tests administered to the patients with epilepsy, verbal learning and memory scores, long-term memory, and total recognition test scores were significantly lower than those of the controls. Following the repeat cognitive tests, significant progress was found in the verbal categorical fluency score of the PNES group. No significant difference was determined in the epilepsy group. Significant contraction was determined in the Stroop interference time in the control group, but no similar change was recorded in the epilepsy or PNES groups. Conclusion: While memory problems seemed to be most prominent in the assessed patients with epilepsy, attention and executive function problems were more dominant in the patients with PNESs. These findings are probably related to numerous factors such duration of disease, mood disorders, and specific drug use. No deterioration in attention and executive functions was reported in the early post-seizure period in either patient group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epileptic patients present with psychiatric disorders more frequently than the general population and patients with other chronic medical conditions. Psychiatric disorders can co-occur with epilepsy and can be caused by epilepsy. Personality changes, as well as psychosis, and mood or anxiety disorders can occur in association with epilepsy. Anxiety disorders due to epilepsy can manifest as generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, phobias, or obsessive-compulsive disorder. The risk of an anxiety disorder is higher in patients with focal epilepsy, especially those with temporal lobe epilepsy, but an anxiety disorder can also occur in patients with frontal lobe epilepsy or generalized tonic-clonic epilepsy. Herein we present a 41-year-old female patient with comorbid anxiety disorder and epilepsy that improved following initiation of antiepileptic medication. The patient's EEG showed abnormalities, particularly in the frontal lobe. Epileptic activation-associated anxiety disorder presented as phobia of swallowing and the patient exhibited features of generalized anxiety disorder. Following initiation of antiepileptic medication, the seizures stopped and the symptoms of anxiety disappeared in two weeks. The patient was receiving psychotherapy once every 2 weeks. The patient remained asymptomatic during 2-years of follow-up. This case highlights the importance of differential diagnosis of underlying epilepsy in patients with acute severe anxiety and the efficacy of proper medical treatment, which was given in the presented case for the underling pathology of anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The aim of this study is to determine the changes in the polysomnographic parameters and the cyclic alternating pattern (CAP) in generalized and partial epilepsy patients (with and without epileptiform discharges in EEG) using video-EEG-PSG recording. Materials and Methods: 73 patients diagnosed with epilepsy and 19 healthy controls within the same age group (control group) underwent an 8 hour long sleep video-EEG-PSG recording. After the first evaluation, CAP parameters were scored in 57 patients (31 generalized and 26 partial epilepsy) and 16 healty subjects who have no sleep diseases and the results were compared within groups. Results: Total sleep time and NREM I phase were found to be longest in the partial epilepsy group, shortest in the control group while REM phase was just the opposite to this. Mean CAP ratios were found to be statistically higher in the generalized epilepsy group when compared to other two groups. This difference was found to be continued when the control group and the generalized epileptic patients who had no abnormality in EEG. No difference was found between the partial epilepsy and control group regarding CAP ratios. Conclusion: Patients with generalized epilepsy have differences compared to healthy individuals regarding the macro and microstructure of sleep and it seems that these differences are independent of the epileptiform discharges. In partial epilepsy patients, no microstructural differences were detected while macrostructural changes were evident. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to differentiate individuals with early-onset Alzheimer's disease (EOAD) and identify differences of functional connectivity in resting-state EEG between individuals with EOAD and late-onset AD (LOAD) in comparison with both healthy young and elderly individuals. Forty EOAD and 56 LOAD patients were included along with 51 demographically matched young, and 54 elderly healthy individuals as controls to the EOAD and LOAD groups. Four minutes of resting-state EEG were recorded during the eyes-closed condition. The absolute value of imaginary coherence (ICoh) was measured for connectivity. The maximum values of ICoh were measured at delta (0.5-3.5 Hz), theta (4-7.5Hz), alpha (8-13 Hz), alpha-1 (8-10 Hz), alpha-2 (10.5-13 Hz), beta (13-30 Hz), beta-1 (13-20 Hz), and beta-2 (20.5-30 Hz) frequency bands. Individuals with EOAD showed higher coherence values in all frequency bands than LOAD patients. Compared to young healthy controls (YHC), EOAD had increased ICoh values in theta and beta-2 bands, whereas LOAD had lower ICoh values in the alpha-1 band than elderly healthy controls (EHC). Lastly, patients with EOAD demonstrated negative moderate correlations between language domains and beta-1 ICoh values. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study evaluating coherence alterations among early-and late-onset AD patients and the diagnostic value of coherence measures. It was suggested that EOAD patients had more severe pathological changes compared with LOAD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]