Open-ended questions may underestimate the prevalence of specific types of auras and may be in part responsible for the underrecognition of auras in GE. 1 The brain activity that occurs during an aura can produce a variety of sensations that are not really reflective of what is going on around you. Differences between responses to the open-ended question and closed-ended questions may also reflect clinically relevant variation in patient responses to history-taking and surveys. A seizure aura is associated with changes in brain activity that can make you see, feel, hear, smell, or taste things that are not aligned with your actual surroundings. This finding may support existing theories of cortical and subcortical generators of GE with variable spread patterns. Analysis of responses to the closed-ended questions suggested that 341 participants (64.3%) experienced at least one form of aura.Īuras typically associated with focal epilepsy were reported by a substantial proportion of EPGP subjects with GE. Of these, 112 (21.3%) reported auras in response to the open-ended question. Seven hundred ninety-eight participants with GE were identified, of whom 530 reported grand mal seizures. All participants were then systematically queried regarding a list of specific symptoms occurring before grand mal seizures, using structured (closed-ended) questions. Lateral temporal lobe seizures may spread and.

This questionnaire initially required participants to provide their own description of any subjective phenomena before their 'grand mal seizures.' Participants who provided answers to these questions were considered to have an aura. and the onset of impaired awareness is an earlier feature (the initial aware phase is not as prolonged). Responses to the standardized diagnostic interview regarding tonic-clonic (grand mal) seizures were then examined. In this cross-sectional study, participants with GE were drawn from the Epilepsy Phenome/Genome Project (EPGP). We studied the frequency of auras in generalized epilepsy (GE) using a detailed semistructured diagnostic interview.

Aural phase seizure