Forty children (23 boys, 17 girls) with centrotemporal spikes (rolandic focus) with and without seizures (mean age 8.4 years +/- 4.8 SD), and 40 healthy controls matched for age, sex, and socioeconomic status were assessed for their neuropsychological, intellectual, and behavioral outcome. Compared with the controls, patients were significantly impaired in their IQ, visual perception, short-term memory, in their psychiatric status and in some subtests in a fine motor performance task. No significant differences could be computed for a simple finger-motor speed exercise or a linguistic performance test. In patients, deficits in IQ were significantly correlated with frequency of spikes in the EEG, but not with frequency of seizures, lateralization of the rolandic focus, or time since rolandic focus was diagnosed. It was concluded that a rolandic focus is not as benign as once thought.
