Effects of Playing Videogames on Paroxysmal Activities in Patients with Localization‐Related Epilepsy
Authors: Araki Takehisa , Inoue Yushi , Mihara Tadahiro , Yagi Kazuichi 
Published: August 2009

Purpose: Although several articles suggested that videogames can induce seizures, little is known about the mechanism of videogame‐induced seizures. We investigated the effects of playing videogames on paroxysmal activities in the patients who were undergoing invasive long‐term EEG/video monitoring for surgical treatment.

Methods: Twenty patients (mean age, 23.8 years) with localization‐related epilepsy who were undergoing invasive long‐term EEG/video monitoring were investigated. Seven of them had frontal lobe epilepsy, 12 had temporal lobe epilepsy, and one had occipital lobe epilepsy. None of them had either photosensitivity or a history of videogame‐induced seizures. Subdural electrodes and depth electrodes were implanted (mean number of electrodes, 114.5) for surgical treatment. The recordings were made with a 64‐channel EEG. EEG was recorded while sitting with open eyes for 1 h (control) and while playing videogames for 1 h. The number of interictal discharges (IIDs) in every electrode for 1 h were counted (Nippon Koden, Monitor Spike Detection). We investigated whether playing videogames induced an increase of IIDs of >50% or a decrease of IIDs of <50% compared with the controls.

Results: Frontal lobe epilepsy (seven patients): An increase in the IIDs was observed at the epileptic focus (one patient), surrounding the epileptic focus (five patients) and at the mesial frontal lobe (four patients). Temporal lobe epilepsy (12 patients): An increase in the IIDs was observed at the epileptic focus (four patients), surrounding the epileptic focus (10 patients), and a decrease in the IIDs was observed at the parietal lobe (seven patients). Almost all patients spent a lot of time playing videogames. Among the 20 patients, five patients (two patients with frontal lobe epilepsy and three patients with temporal lobe epilepsy) had seizures while playing videogames apart from their EEG recording for the IIDs study. Electroclinical observations indicated that these seizures were identical with their habitual seizures. These five patients did not show any difference in pattern of IIDs compared with the other patients. Considering these results and that all of the five patients had no history of videogame‐induced seizures, we thought that the seizures occurring while playing videogames were not induced by videogames.

Conclusions: We investigated the effects of playing videogames on paroxysmal activities in patients who had no history of videogame‐induced seizures with intracranial EEG. Playing videogames induced an increase in the IIDs at the epileptic focus, surrounding epileptic focus, and mesial frontal lobe, whereas playing videogames induced a decrease in the IIDs at parietal lobe. These findings indicated that playing videogames had some effects on the cortical function. Because changes of IIDs were not related to the occurrence of seizures and the seizures occurring while playing videogames were identical to habitual seizures, we thought that playing videogames had little effects on epileptogenicity.