This sensation may progress along a limb or to adjacent cutaneous body areas, reflecting abnormal neuronal firing in the postcentral gyrus where an epileptic discharge is propagated.
These episodes in which patients are consciously aware during a seizure have been useful for identifying problems associated with the somatosensory cortex.
However, depending on the extent of the injury, damage can range in loss of proprioception of an individual limb or the entire body.
A deficit known as cortical astereognosis of the receptive type describes an inability to make use of tactile sensory information for identifying objects placed in the hand.
[1] Evaluation of somatosensory stimuli are limited by the patient's interpretation of sensation in response to testing.