31y, seizures

May 20, 2025

What would you call this fella? The patient is asleep 

 Figure 1:

 

Notice the change in "paper speed"; The above represented at 5 seconds per page

Refer to figure 1 above. While this looks like a spike and slow wave, there are a few clues that it does not represent a spike. First, the top part of the wave appears unusually brief for a spike and resembles an artefact. Two, note the electropositive discharge at F4 (and at P4; a downward deflection at F4-C4 and C4-P4), adjacent to the electro-negative discharge at FP1 (Channels 5 and 13). Using the "slow paper speed" confirms the electropositive discharge at F4. Three, in channel 9 there is a polyphasic morphology that is different to the rest of the discharge, but synchronous with it. This polyphasic appearance is atypical of a spike and also predicts an artefact. Since this discharge only appears in this channel and not at F8-T4, it most likely reflects such a discharge in FP2; while it is not seen in channel 1, probably obscured by the high amplitude sharply contoured waveform in channel 1. Although the latter discharge in channel 1 intuitively appears to arise from FP2, especially as it resembles the discharge in FP1, this is not correct as a much larger deflection would be apparent in channel 9 if this discharge was substantially electro-negative at FP2. Hence, the electropositive discharge at F4 is important and the high amplitude deflection in channel 1 is almost certainly due to a combination of a moderately high amplitude electropositive discharge at F4 and a slight electro-negative discharge at FP2 (this contention supported by the low amplitude upward deflection in channel 9).  

Bottom line?

This is an artefact, likely electrostatic, as the field is not biologically plausible (a substantially electropositive discharge at F4, a minor electro-negative discharge at FP2 and a large electro-negative discharge at FP1, with no deflection in the other adjacent derivations). As the old saying goes, "looks can be deceiving".

PS: There is a way of confirming the above