TY - JOUR
T1 - Temporal lobe epilepsy and emotion recognition without amygdala
T2 - A case study of Urbach-Wiethe disease and review of the literature
AU - Meletti, Stefano
AU - Cantalupo, Gaetano
AU - Santoro, Francesca
AU - Benuzzi, Francesca
AU - Marliani, Anna Federica
AU - Tassinari, Carlo Alberto
AU - Rubboli, Guido
PY - 2014/12/1
Y1 - 2014/12/1
N2 - We describe the epilepsy features and emotion recognition abilities (recognition of basic facial emotions and recognition of emotional prosody) in a patient with Urbach-Wiethe disease with bilateral amygdala calcifications. Our data, supported by ictal video-EEG recording, indicated that our patient suffered from mesial temporal lobe epilepsy. Emotion recognition abilities were compared to those of healthy controls and those of patients with bilateral mesial temporal lobe epilepsy. Our patient showed a selective impairment of the recognition of facial expression of fear, whereas recognition of emotional prosody was preserved, in contrast to bilateral mesial temporal lobe epilepsy patients that presented with deficits in both domains. We also reviewed the literature on epilepsy in Urbach-Wiethe disease (41 patients). Our findings suggest that in Urbach-Wiethe disease, the circumscribed damage of both amygdalae results in a selective dysfunction of fearful face processing, in contrast to bilateral mesial temporal lobe epilepsy patients who present with a widespread and multimodal impairment in the judgement of emotional stimuli.
AB - We describe the epilepsy features and emotion recognition abilities (recognition of basic facial emotions and recognition of emotional prosody) in a patient with Urbach-Wiethe disease with bilateral amygdala calcifications. Our data, supported by ictal video-EEG recording, indicated that our patient suffered from mesial temporal lobe epilepsy. Emotion recognition abilities were compared to those of healthy controls and those of patients with bilateral mesial temporal lobe epilepsy. Our patient showed a selective impairment of the recognition of facial expression of fear, whereas recognition of emotional prosody was preserved, in contrast to bilateral mesial temporal lobe epilepsy patients that presented with deficits in both domains. We also reviewed the literature on epilepsy in Urbach-Wiethe disease (41 patients). Our findings suggest that in Urbach-Wiethe disease, the circumscribed damage of both amygdalae results in a selective dysfunction of fearful face processing, in contrast to bilateral mesial temporal lobe epilepsy patients who present with a widespread and multimodal impairment in the judgement of emotional stimuli.
KW - Amygdala
KW - Emotion recognition
KW - Emotional prosody
KW - Lipoid proteinosis
KW - Temporal lobe epilepsy
KW - Urbach-Wiethe disease
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84920679003&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84920679003&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1684/epd.2014.0696
DO - 10.1684/epd.2014.0696
M3 - Article
C2 - 25465029
AN - SCOPUS:84920679003
VL - 16
SP - 518
EP - 527
JO - Epileptic Disorders
JF - Epileptic Disorders
SN - 1294-9361
IS - 4
ER -