Use the frequency, distribution, and provocation pattern to decide whether the study supports generalized or focal epilepsy. A normal interictal background with generalized spike-wave still strongly supports absence epilepsy when the clinical story fits.

Absence seizures usually show generalized 3 Hertz spike-wave discharges; Complex partial seizures show focal epileptiform abnormalities at the seizure onset zone; Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy often shows generalized frontally predominant 4 to 6 Hertz spike-wave or polyspike-wave bursts; About 30 percent of JME patients show photosensitivity; Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy commonly localizes to temporal pole channels such as F7-T3 or F8-T4