Biomecanica

Epilepsy & Behavior 22 (2011) 718–722

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Epilepsy & Behavior journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/yebeh

Physiological and electroencephalographic responses to acute exhaustive physical exercise in people with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy
Cristiano de Lima a, Rodrigo Luiz Vancini b, Ricardo Mario Arida b, Laura M.F.F. Guilhoto c,
Marco Túlio de Mello a, Amaury Tavares Barreto a, Mirian Salvadori Bittar Guaranha c,
Elza Márcia Targas Yacubian c, Sergio Tufik a,⁎ a b c Departamento de Psicobiologia, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo (SP), Brazil
Departamento de Fisiologia, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo (SP), Brazil
Departamento de Neurologia, Unidade de Pesquisa e Tratamento das Epilepsias da Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo (SP), Brazil

article

info

Article history:
Received 20 June 2011
Revised 2 August 2011
Accepted 26 August 2011
Available online 4 October 2011
Keywords:
Epilepsy
Seizure
Sleep
Physical activity
Resting metabolic rate
Electroencephalogram

abstract
Although the available evidence suggests that exercise may positively affect epilepsy, whether this effect is applicable to different types of epilepsy has not been established. Physiological responses during rest, acute physical effort, and a recovery period were studied by concomitant analysis of cerebral electric activity using EEGs in subjects with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) and healthy controls. In addition, level of habitual physical activity, body composition, and 1 week of actigraphy monitoring data were evaluated.
Twenty-four subjects (12 with JME and 12 controls) participated in this study. Compared with the control
˙
group, the JME group had a significantly lower V O2 at rest (13.3%) and resting metabolic rate (15.6%). The number of epileptiform discharges in the JME group was significantly reduced during the recovery period
(72%) compared with the