Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Benign childhood epilepsy with Centre temporal spikes (BECTS) is characterized by simple motor or sensory seizures during sleep or upon awaking with or without secondary generalization, with Electroencephalogram (EEG) that shows Centro temporal spikes. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been described as a prominent psychiatric comorbidity in epilepsy .These results suggest that these two features may share a correlational pathology. In resting state functional connectivity three networks were examined, namely, ventral attention network, dorsal attention network, and default mode network. In ADHD altered brain activity is found in dorsal attention network and ventral attention network, which has clinical implications in attention impairments. Questions: Could BECTS cause dysfunction in the specific networks involved in attention? Why children with BECTS have greater susceptibility to distracters in their visual field compared with healthy children? Methods: A total of 30 children (14girls, 16 boys) with BECTS from Sick Kids Hospital and 14 healthy controls will recruited. Neuropsychologists score DSM-IV criteria for ADHD. The inclusion criteria are as follow: 1) newly diagnosed BECTS according to the clinical and EEG criteria; 3) Typical seizures that were hemifacial; 4) no other neurological disorders; 5) No comorbidities. All the subjects received simultaneous EEG-fMRI scanning. Anticipated outcomes: we will provide the preliminary evidence whether the ADHD related abnormal resting-state functional connectivity is present in patients with BECTS and whether these findings in BECTS predict treatment outcomes.