Finger snapping during seizures

M J Overdijk; M Zijlmans; P H Gosselaar; A Olivier; F S S Leijten; F Dubeau

doi:10.1016/j.ebcr.2014.03.010

Finger snapping during seizures

Epilepsy Behav Case Rep. 2014 May 4:2:108-11. doi: 10.1016/j.ebcr.2014.03.010. eCollection 2014.

Authors

M J Overdijk¹, M Zijlmans², P H Gosselaar³, A Olivier⁴, F S S Leijten⁵, F Dubeau⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, Medical Center The Hague, The Hague, The Netherlands.
² Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands ; SEIN, Epilepsy Institute in the Netherlands Foundation, Heemstede, The Netherlands.
³ Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Hospital and Institute, Montréal, Canada.
⁵ SEIN, Epilepsy Institute in the Netherlands Foundation, Heemstede, The Netherlands.

Abstract

We describe two patients who showed snapping of the right hand fingers during invasive intracranial EEG evaluation for epilepsy surgery. We correlated the EEG changes with the finger-snapping movements in both patients to determine the underlying pathophysiology of this phenomenon. At the time of finger snapping, EEG spread from the supplementary motor area towards the temporal region was seen, suggesting involvement of these sites.

Keywords: Automatism; Complex partial seizure; Epilepsy; Finger snapping; Intracranial EEG; Semiology.

Publication types

Case Reports