Simple partial seizures
• The patient remains aware and conscious throughout the seizure
• Symptoms:
- Motor: jerking or stiffening of part of the body, for example facial jerking. (Remember that motor activity comes from the Frontal lobe from the opposite side))
- Sensory (also called aura), for example:
- Numbness or tingling (Parietal lobe)
- Hearing something (Temporal lobe)
- Seeing something (Occipital lobe)
- Smelling something (Frontal or temporal lobes)
- Autonomic: for example the sensation of “butterflies in the stomach,” sweating, palpitations, etc
- Psychic: déjà vu (feeling like a new situation is something that was already seen or experienced before), jamais vu (feeling like a known situation is new and unfamiliar)
• EEG:
- Interictal (an EEG performed when the patient is not having a seizure): the main marker that the epilepsy doctor will look for is called a “spike” because of the way it looks (sharp point). The area of the brain in which the spike is seen is suspected to be more excitable and prone to develop seizures. The location of the spikes is very telling as to where the seizures might originate, but not as reliable as the information obtained during an actual seizure.
- Ictal (EEG performed during the seizure) may show focal activity (in the best outcome) or may be normal and not helpful in confirming the diagnosis. The reason that the EEG could be normal is that the area of the brain involved in a simple partial seizure is so small that it does not produce enough electrical activity to be picked up by the scalp EEG.