Language and central temporal auditory processing in childhood epilepsies

Abstract Because of the relationship between rolandic, temporoparietal, and centrotemporal areas and language and auditory processing, the aim of this study was to investigate language and central temporal auditory processing of children with epilepsy (rolandic epilepsy and temporal lobe epilepsy) and compare these with those of children without epilepsy. Thirty-five children aged between eight and 14 years old were studied. Two groups of children participated in this study: a group with childhood epilepsy (n = 19), and a control group without epilepsy or linguistic changes (n = 16). There was a significant difference between the two groups, with the worst performance in children with epilepsy for the gaps-in-noise test, right ear (p < 0.001) and left ear (p < 0.001) tests, and duration pattern test — naming (p = 0.002) and humming (p = 0.002). In auditory P300, there was no significant difference in latency (p = 0.343) and amplitude (p = 0.194) between the groups. There was a significant difference between the groups, with the worst performance in children with epilepsy, for the auditory-receptive vocabulary (PPVT) (p < 0.001) and phonological working memory (nonwords repetition task) tasks (p = 0.001). We conclude that the impairment of central temporal auditory processing and language skills may be comorbidities in children with rolandic epilepsy and temporal lobe epilepsy.