Texting Triggers New Type of Brain Wave Video EEG monitoring reveals 'texting rhythm' in some epilepsy patients

Tatum and colleagues evaluated data from 129 patients seen at Mayo Clinic Florida and Rush University Medical Center, finding that nearly a quarter of the population (24%) showed this "texting rhythm" on video EEG monitoring. He defined it as a "reproducible, stimulus-evoked, time-locked generalized frontocentral monomorphic burst of 5 to 6 Hz theta, consistently induced by active text messaging." The waveform was highly specific to active texting (P<0.0001), and it didn't occur with other activities such as voice calls, speech, or movement. Nor was there any association with age, gender, epilepsy type, MRI results, or EEG lateralization in patients with focal epileptic seizures, Tatum said. Advertisement He noted that the wave pattern itself isn't exactly new: "It's a new biorhythm in terms of where it appears and what causes it," he said. "It's not a new rhythm relative to the EEGs that people have been analyzing since the early 1900s." http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/AES/55068?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2015-12-08&eun=g721819d0r