Social cognition in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy

Several studies demonstrated the critical role on processing emotional stimuli of mesial temporal lobe structures, which is the common pathologic substrate of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy associated with Mesial Temporal Sclerosis (TLE-MTS). The present study evaluated the emotional processing in TLE-MTS requiring patients to recognise facial and prosodic expressions of both basic and social emotions. Subjects: 11 patients with TLE-MTS. 12 patients with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy associated with other etiology (TLE-les) and 30 normal controls were evaluated. TLE-MTS patients were impaired in recognition all negative basic emotions (fear, sadness, angry, disgust) both from facial and prosodic expressions. They also showed a generalized deficit in social emotions recognitions whereas TLE-les patients were impaired in recognition of one specific social emotion (guilty). Our findings could also account for difficulties in social interactions often found in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy.