Comorbid psychosis in temporal lobe epilepsy is associated with auditory emotion recognition impairments

MONICA FERNANDEZ LIMA, MERCEDES SARUDIANSKY, SILVIA ODDO, BRENDA GIAGANTE, SILVIA KOCHEN, LUCIANA D´ALESSIO

SCHIZOPHRENIA RESEARCH

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2023 vol. 254

0920-9964

Introduction: Temporal lobe plays a central role in emotional recognition (ER), essential function for social behavior. Psychiatric disorders including depression and psychosis are common psychiatric comorbidities among patients with drug resistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). The aim of this study was to investigate the visual and auditory (bimodal) ER performance, and the influence of the psychiatric comorbidities and the laterality of epileptic focus on ER, in a cohort of patients with drug-resistant TLE.Materials and methods: Patients with TLE were diagnosed according to a standardized protocol including neurological, neuropsychological and psychiatric assessment (SCID of DSM IV), and complementary studies, EEG, VEEG and MRI. The ER performance was determined using visual stimuli from the Set "Pictures of facial affect" (POFA) and auditory stimuli from the Set "Montreal Affective Voices". Statistical analysis was performed using non-parametric tests and a multiple linear regression analysis.Results: Forty-nine patients with drug-resistant TLE (19 women, 20 men; age 33.24 +/- 10.94) and 23 healthy controls (12 women, 11 men; age 37.7 +/- 12.95) were included. Patients with TLE presented a significantly worst general performance in bimodal, visual and auditory ER (p