Deja Vu, Auras & Language Based LDs

Interesting

My guy just mentionned yesterday the pictures he sees when he is ‘daydreaming

I assumed yep, kid thinks in pictures-hes right brained, etc

I never really thought about the other possibility and wonder just how hard it would be to get an EEG done

I REALLY noticed the ‘staring spells’ homeschooling last year

And my 19 year old actually came to me worried about his experience driving ds3 to purchase their most coveted Halo 2 video game. It was the weekend and he wasnt on Adderall so I assumed daydreaming(probably about the dang game)

Also frightening is that my 16 year old experienced increased deja vu after the head injury in his car accident last April. I need to ask if that has cleared up as we are getting ready to settle with insurance at this point

But who knows?

>Not long ago I happened to do some research on temporal processing. The temporal lobes are an area of the brain responsible for memory, language and some other things. Dysfunction (or seizures) in this area of the brain can sometimes cause difficulties in auditory processing and reading.

Well maybe. I have temporal lobe seizures (or they are under control at least). I had a fair amount of that as well as jame vu (the feeling that something familar is strange) and even synthesia which is the blending of senses (like seeing colors of sounds, say). I would say that I have maybe some auditory processing problems (like hearing speech in noise and that kind of thing) but I taught myself to read at age 3 or so. But I do know of Asperger adults who have had similar phenomena and do have more severe auditory problems. Everybody is different.

Unfortunately learning if a child (or adult!) has temporal lobe or partial seizures isn’t always easy. These are not obvious seizures. And the more I’ve learned about them, the more I’ve began to wonder just how many people out there may have this going on and not even realize it.

>Sometimes these seizures are extremely subtle such as instances of Deja Vu or Auras (unusual sense experiences, i.e. either auditory, visual, tactile even smell). The person in the midst of one of these seizures may just have a short “staring spell.”

I would agree. My seizures were even missed by three neurologists and several EEGs. In fact, they were only caught due to the fact that I had the seizure during the exact time of the EEG. They aren’t usually so cooperative. But they can be very subtle!

BTW, kind of miss some of that but I haven’t had any since being on seizure medication.

>hey happen to mention having a lot of Deja Vu or Auras (or you notice a lot of staring spells), you may want to investigate further, talk with a neurologist, get an EEG, etc…[/quote]

You’d maybe want to look for a university hospital or someoen with university experience where they see a lot of different things. They can have experiences that the more run of the mill neurologist hasn’t seen. They can be pretty wierd from what I hear. The guy who dxed me said that he had a patient once that had a hallucination, but only in the shower and that was of 7 Up cans floating along (never anything but 7UPs— no cokes, etc.), must have been triggering firing in the exact area of the brain where memory of 7UP is stored. :-)

—des

Marycas,
I found this whole thing really fascinating when I learned about the connection and then started reading more about it. The thing I find kind of suprising is how few of us with LD kids are aware of temporal lobe seizures or temporal lobe epilepsy. Most of us (me included!) imagine seizures to be a typical grand mal (shaking, teeth clenched, etc..),
while temporal lobe seizures can be completely “unseizure-like.” Many people don’t even know they have them.

Des,
Temporal lobe seizures often cause auditory processing difficulties in some people. In fact, I’ve come across quite a few people with temporal lobe epilepsy who have auditory processing deficit. Also, when I was looking into FFW some of the research included participants with temporal lobe processing difficulties.

My son had an EEG on Friday. I haven’t gotten the results yet. Our regular physican ordered the testing. It only took an hour and wasn’t a big deal. However, there are longer more involved EEGs and these have a higher chance of discovering seizure activity.

One bad thing about temporal lobe seizures is that they are difficult to catch on EEGs. I think the only sure way to know is through a spec (I think that’s what it’s called? Dr. Amen does these). Unfortunately these are expensive and I don’t think they are covered through insurance. But I think a spec can map the brain.

But an EEG still isn’t a bad place to start. Marycas, has your 16-year-old noticed any memory problems? I don’t want to frighten you but trauma can cause temporal lobe seizures. Although there’s a good chance that if it’s happening because of the accident it’s only temporary.