Abstract
This paper has examined motor preference in one hundred and seven non-hemiparetic patients with epilepsy who could be classified into either generalized epilepsies, idiopathic : GE (I), generalized epilepsies, non-idiopatic : GE (non-I) , or partial epilepsies : PE. The patients were compared with 18 normal control subjects (NC). The classification was based on the revised classification of epilepsies (1989) and defined as follows. GE (I) corresponded to idiopathic age-dependent generalized epilepsies (2.1), GE (non-I) to cryptogenic or symptomatic age-dependent generalized epilesies (2.2) and symptomatic generalized epilepsies (2.3), PE to symptomatic localization-related epilepsies (1.2). GE (I) group consisted of eight patients, GE (non-I) of twenty two patients, and PE of sixty four patients. Instead of answering quessionnaire verbally, they were encouraged to use real objects in practice. The test battery consisted of 4 hand preference items, 4 eye preference items, 4 ear preference items and 4 foot preference items. Testers rated subjects' motor preference on a 3-point scale. Each item was scored from—1 (left) to+1 (right). A composite score derived by summing the scores on all items.
The results were as follows. Differences in total motor preference score between NC (10.1±4.1) and GE (I) (10.1±2.6) group did not reached statistical significance. So did PE group as a total. The patients of GE (non-I) used left side significantly more often than control group (p < 0.05, t = 2.23). Footedness score indicated the most conspicuous sinstrality in these patients (t = 2.52, p < 0.01). PE-group with left EEC foci (18 patients) had a significant lower motor preference score (4.3±7.3) than control group (t = 2.86, p < 0.01) while PE-group with right EEC foci (29 patient) did not have such a tendency. Intelligence Quotient, measured by WAIS, revealed no significant effect of groups between both subgroups of the partial epilepsy. The correlative coefficient revealed significant correspondences between handedness and footedness in all groups including normal control subjects. In GE (non-I) subgroup and PE group, however, earedness was also significantly correlated to handedness as well as footedness.
The results provides support for the model which predicts that this raised incidence of lower motor preference score in partial epileptics with left EEG foci depends largely on unilateral (left) rather than non-specific brain dysfunction or direct neurological sequleae.
