[Congenital visual deficiency: chances and difficulties of management]. / La déficience visuelle congénitale: chances et difficultes d'aménagement.

The traditional theories according to which deprivation of the visual channel is directly responsible for every disturbance observed in children born blind or partially sighted prove to be unsatisfactory; they fail to answer why, given the same visual defect, some children develop in a healthy way while others present a typical picture of infantile psychosis. The authors put forward the following hypotheses: infantile psychosis is always both a sign of and a response to trauma, in the sense developed by Freud in Beyond the Pleasure Principle, which has struck the mother-child dual unit; the high frequency of psychotics among children born blind indicates that blindness is a particularly charged trauma. The traumatic neurosis of the parents and especially of the mother is catastrophic for the child; it is therefore necessary to understand why and how its works, how it can be avoided or dealth with. The authors present a detailed clinical description of the various possible mother-child constellations and regarding unfavourable outcomes, propose preventive measures.

[Sleep and depression (author's transl)]. / Sommeil et dépression.

This critical review of the literature concerns the electrophysiological studies of sleep applied to depressed patients. While the (phenomenological) studies confirm the actual sleep disturbances in most patients and at certain stages of the depressive episodes, the (parallelistic) studies failed to evidence any strict correlation between quantified sleep data and nosographical classifications of depressions. The reductionistic) studies, searching into sleep measurements indices of specific biochemical disturbances also lead to contradictory and questionable conclusions. The explanation of this negative assessment is not to be found in methodological deficiencies but must be searched at the level of the theoretical approach of the problem.

[Results of long-lasting drug intake on child development; clinical and electrophysiological study during drug withdrawal]. / Conséquences de l'imprégnation médicamenteuse de longue durée sur le développement de l'enfant; étude clinique et éléctrophysiologique au cours du sevrage.

The case of a child under continuous anticonvulsant medication, especially barbiturate, since the age of 8 months for atypical seizures is reported. Medication was withdrawn when the child was 7.7 years old. The child was then under care in a Day Hospital with an autistic-like syndrome associated with important disturbances of sleep-waking regulation, complete learning incapability and major EEG abnormalities. The EEG paroxysmal discharges observed in the waking and all-night sleep records gradually decreased and then disappeared as the withdrawal was pursued over a period of several months. During the same period, the child's behaviour markedly improved and his sleep disturbances disappeared. The possibility of iatrogenic effects of early and continuous anti-convulsant therapies is discussed, even though the drug plasma levels remain within ranges generally considered as non-toxic.

Long duration EEG studies in the case of a psychotic child.

Three biotelemetric examinations and a whole night sleep recording were carried out in an 8-year-old child whose behaviour alternated between excitation and autism with stereotypes. The EEG showed 5 c/sec temporo-parietal sharp wave discharges lasting from 1 sec to 20 min. These discharges were at times unilateral and predominantly right sided, at other times bilateral, without any clinical sign of epilepsy. The chronological distribution of right, left and bilateral discharges during the successive 1 min epochs was computed and related to corresponding 'behavioural states' of the child. The paroxysmal discharges predominated when the child was awake but not involved in any relational activity; during sleep, they mostly appeared during light NREM sleep (stage I) and paradoxical sleep. The significance of these paroxysmal discharges is discussed in relation to stereotyped behaviour, vigilance and early disorganization of biological rhythms.

[The psychosis-epilepsy relationship in children]. / Les associations psychosepépilepsie chez l'enfant.

From four cases studied both clinically and with the help of repeated and prolonged electroencephalograms, the problems raised by the association psychosis-epilepsy in children are reconsidered. The difficulties in evaluating: the actual weight of the "epilepsy" component; the role of the epileptic discharge for the subject's psychic economy; the role of drug therapies, are particularly underlined.

Striate cortex potentials related to eye movements in the light and in darkness in the waking human.

Potentials in relation to eye movements were studied by means of direct recording of the striate cortex in a waking man. In a lighted environment, the usual evoked potential--lambda response--was obtained and was clearly visible after each eye movement. In complete darkness no individual potential was observable by means of visual analysis after each eye movement, but a slow potential of low amplitude could be obtained by superimposition and averaging of the cortical striate activity time-locked to the start of a series of eye movements. This eye-movement potential showed a longer latency and a lower amplitude than the lambda response. These data are discussed in reference to those obtained in the cat and the monkey; the significance of this eye-movement potential in darkness as a 'corollary discharge' is considered.

[Electrophysiologic semiology of daytime sleep in 7 to 9-year-old children]. / Semeiologie électrophysiologique du sommeil de jour chez l'enfant de 7 a 9 ans

The afternoon sleep of 12 children aged 7-9 was studied; its electrophysiological indices and sequential organization were described and compared to those of afternoon sleep of adults and to those of night sleep of adults and children. The EEG indices which differentiate sleep patterns of children from adults' were the following: abundance of slow rhythms from onset of sleep; absence of low voltage fast activity at sleep onset and during REM sleep; early appearance of a large amount of transitory potentials in the form of sharp rolandic waves and sharp occipital waves. Moreover, either focal or generalized paroxysmal discharges occasionally occurred. Even when it covers a complete sleep cycle, the afternoon sleep of children appears shorter than both that of adults and the first cycle of night sleep in children of the same age. The organization of sleep components does not allow identification of the classical stages defined in adults nor to describe homogeneous stages which are specific to children. The very atypical character of REM sleep also makes it difficult to differentiate unequivocally the classical slow and paradoxical sleeps. The significance of rolandic and occipital sharp transients is discussed; the role of maturation and the influence of the time of occurrence within the circadian rhythm are considered, in order to explain the phenomenological and temporal characteristics of day sleep in children.

[A telemetric study of central rhythms in children]. / Etude telemetrique des rythmes centraux ches l'enfant

Data concerning central (mu) rhythms in children are reported, these rhythms being studied by means of prolonged telemetric recording which makes it possible to study various experimental situations. Several different patterns of mu rhythm were observed in every subject, depending on the experimental situation. The level and the quality of attention on the one hand, immobility on the other, were found to be the two main factors which facilitated the occurrence or the maintenance of mu rhythms. The induction of movement, especially of the hand, was the major cause of blocking pre-existing mu rhythms, but attention alone was also able to provoke the same reaction. These data were compared with those obtained in animals by direct recording from the cortical somaesthetic areas. The respective roles of vigilance, attention and movement are discussed.

Disorganized relations of tonic and phasic events of REM sleep in a case of brain-stem tumour.

This study concerns a case of infliltrating tumour of the pons in which a night sleep recording was performed. Selective disorganization of REM sleep was observed, with lack of muscular atonia and disturbances of tonic-phasic relationships. These data are discussed with respect to the results of local destructions performed experimentally in animals.