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Seizures triggered by eating: a rare form of reflex epilepsy Volume 22, numéro 5, October 2020

The seizure occurs midway through dinner while the patient was mixing his food with his right hand and having a conversation. It begins with cessation of mixing of food, blank staring, continual chewing movements, and repeated touching of his head with his left hand. Forty seconds after the clinical onset, horizontal nystagmus and subtle side-to-side head shaking is visible. This is followed by clonic head version to the right, transient generalised stiffening, before the event aborting with a cough. The EEG seizure onset is masked by muscle and chewing artefact. Thirty-two seconds from the clinical onset, an evolving rhythmic 16-Hz activity with admixed sharp components becomes visible bilaterally with a left-sided emphasis. This ictal rhythm gradually evolves into a slower frequency in the theta range with an increasing amplitude. During the last 10 seconds of the seizure, repetitive 4-Hz sharp-wave discharges are seen over the left posterior quadrant. The entire clinical event lasts 2 minutes and 25 seconds.

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