This study focuses on the cognitive development of babies and children having suffered from early life prolonged complex febrile seizures (CFS), the most prominent seizure disorder between the ages of six months and five years of age. The objectives of the study are two-fold. First, to determine a neuropsychological profile for school-age children having suffered from early life prolonged CFS, especially with regards to learning and memory. Second, to identify a link between the observed cognitive impairments and the development of the hippocampus, a structure related to learning and memory function. As such, cognitive evaluations are performed by means of neuropsychological tests at seizure onset as well as at five years of age. At this age a structural MRI is also performed to evaluate hippocampal integrity (total volume as well as surface-based analyses) as well as a Diffusion-Weighted MRI (DWI) to evaluate hippocampal connectivity (DTI analyses), having a particular interest for the cortico-hippocampal network.
Population studied: five year-old children having suffered one or more prolonged complex febrile seizures (15 minutes or more) occurring between the ages of 6 and 24 months without having suffered afebrile seizures.
