TY - JOUR
T1 - The affective value of faces in patients achieving long-term seizure freedom after temporal lobectomy
AU - Meletti, Stefano
AU - Picardi, Angelo
AU - De Risi, Marco
AU - Monti, Giulia
AU - Esposito, Vincenzo
AU - Grammaldo, Liliana G.
AU - Di Gennaro, Giancarlo
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - We investigated different aspects of facial expression evaluation in a homogeneous cohort of 42 seizure-free patients with 5 or more years of follow-up after temporal lobectomy (TL), with the aim of further characterizing the impairment in emotion and social cognition among patients. A group of healthy subjects matched for sex, age, and education served as controls. Four tasks of facial expression evaluation were used: (a) facial expression recognition, (b) rating of the intensity of facial expression, and (c) rating of valence (pleasantness) and (d) rating of arousal induced by facial expressions. Patients had a worse performance in the recognition task for all negative emotions, while no differences in intensity ratings were found. They also reported lower arousal ratings than controls for faces showing fear, anger, disgust, and neutral expressions, as well as lower valence ratings for all facial expressions except those showing happiness. Longer epilepsy duration before TL was negatively associated with ratings of arousal and intensity and positively associated with valence ratings for fearful facial expressions.This study showed that patients who become seizure-free after TL present long-term deficits in several aspects of facial expression evaluation. Longitudinal, prospective studies are needed to evaluate if social cognition improves or declines after TL.
AB - We investigated different aspects of facial expression evaluation in a homogeneous cohort of 42 seizure-free patients with 5 or more years of follow-up after temporal lobectomy (TL), with the aim of further characterizing the impairment in emotion and social cognition among patients. A group of healthy subjects matched for sex, age, and education served as controls. Four tasks of facial expression evaluation were used: (a) facial expression recognition, (b) rating of the intensity of facial expression, and (c) rating of valence (pleasantness) and (d) rating of arousal induced by facial expressions. Patients had a worse performance in the recognition task for all negative emotions, while no differences in intensity ratings were found. They also reported lower arousal ratings than controls for faces showing fear, anger, disgust, and neutral expressions, as well as lower valence ratings for all facial expressions except those showing happiness. Longer epilepsy duration before TL was negatively associated with ratings of arousal and intensity and positively associated with valence ratings for fearful facial expressions.This study showed that patients who become seizure-free after TL present long-term deficits in several aspects of facial expression evaluation. Longitudinal, prospective studies are needed to evaluate if social cognition improves or declines after TL.
KW - Arousal
KW - Emotion recognition
KW - Emotions
KW - Facial expressions
KW - Temporal lobe epilepsy
KW - Temporal lobectomy
KW - Valence
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84901589213&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84901589213&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.yebeh.2014.05.002
DO - 10.1016/j.yebeh.2014.05.002
M3 - Article
C2 - 24892756
AN - SCOPUS:84901589213
VL - 36
SP - 97
EP - 101
JO - Epilepsy and Behavior
JF - Epilepsy and Behavior
SN - 1525-5050
ER -