The Importance of Real Words in Seizure Physiology

I think you know most of us in epilepsy have our pet peeves and one of them is when people apply terms incorrectly. I am a big believer in using real words rather than jargon to describe what we see. The figure of four movement is a lateralized finding that can help us tell the onset of a focal to bilateral tonic clonic seizure or a focal onset seizure. There will be asymmetric tonic posturing, elevation and extension of the arm contralateral to seizure onset to the hemisphere of seizure onset with flexion of the ipse lateral arm in a way that looks like a number four.