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Rainer LJ, Kuchukhidze G, Trinka E, Braun M, Kronbichler M, Langthaler P, Zimmermann G, Kronbichler L, Said-Yürekli S, Kirschner M, Zamarian L, Schmid E, Jokeit H, Höfler J. Recognition and perception of emotions in juvenile myoclonic epilepsy. Epilepsia 2023; 64:3319-3330. [PMID: 37795683 DOI: 10.1111/epi.17783] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2023] [Revised: 09/26/2023] [Accepted: 09/28/2023] [Indexed: 10/06/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Perception and recognition of emotions are fundamental prerequisites of human life. Patients with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) may have emotional and behavioral impairments that might influence socially desirable interactions. We aimed to investigate perception and recognition of emotions in patients with JME by means of neuropsychological tests and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). METHODS Sixty-five patients with JME (median age = 27 years, interquartile range [IQR] = 23-34) were prospectively recruited at the Department of Neurology, Christian Doppler University Hospital, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria. Patients were compared to 68 healthy controls (median age = 24 years, IQR = 21-31), matched for sex, age, and education. All study participants underwent the Networks of Emotion Processing test battery (NEmo), an fMRI paradigm of "dynamic fearful faces," a structured interview for psychiatric and personality disorders, and comprehensive neuropsychological testing. RESULTS JME patients versus healthy controls demonstrated significant deficits in emotion recognition in facial and verbal tasks of all emotions, especially fear. fMRI revealed decreased amygdala activation in JME patients as compared to healthy controls. Patients were at a higher risk of experiencing psychiatric disorders as compared to healthy controls. Cognitive evaluation revealed impaired attentional and executive functioning, namely psychomotor speed, tonic alertness, divided attention, mental flexibility, and inhibition of automated reactions. Duration of epilepsy correlated negatively with parallel prosodic and facial emotion recognition in NEmo. Deficits in emotion recognition were not associated with psychiatric comorbidities, impaired attention and executive functions, types of seizures, and treatment. SIGNIFICANCE This prospective study demonstrated that as compared to healthy subjects, patients with JME had significant deficits in recognition and perception of emotions as shown by neuropsychological tests and fMRI. The results of this study may have importance for psychological/psychotherapeutic interventions in the management of patients with JME.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucas Johannes Rainer
- Department of Neurology, Christian Doppler University Hospital, Paracelsus Medical University, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience Salzburg, member of the European Reference Network EpiCARE, Salzburg, Austria
- Neuroscience Institute, Christian Doppler University Hospital, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Salzburg, Austria
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Christian Doppler University Hospital, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Giorgi Kuchukhidze
- Department of Neurology, Christian Doppler University Hospital, Paracelsus Medical University, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience Salzburg, member of the European Reference Network EpiCARE, Salzburg, Austria
- Neuroscience Institute, Christian Doppler University Hospital, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Eugen Trinka
- Department of Neurology, Christian Doppler University Hospital, Paracelsus Medical University, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience Salzburg, member of the European Reference Network EpiCARE, Salzburg, Austria
- Neuroscience Institute, Christian Doppler University Hospital, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Salzburg, Austria
- Department of Public Health, Health Services Research and Health Technology Assessment, University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics, and Technology, Hall in Tirol, Austria
- Karl-Landsteiner Institute for Neurorehabilitation and Space Neurology, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Mario Braun
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience/Department of Psychology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Paris Lodron University, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Martin Kronbichler
- Neuroscience Institute, Christian Doppler University Hospital, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Salzburg, Austria
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience/Department of Psychology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Paris Lodron University, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Patrick Langthaler
- Department of Neurology, Christian Doppler University Hospital, Paracelsus Medical University, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience Salzburg, member of the European Reference Network EpiCARE, Salzburg, Austria
- Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Paris Lodron University, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Georg Zimmermann
- Team Biostatistics and Big Medical Data, Lab for Intelligent Data Analytics Salzburg, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria
- Research and Innovation Management, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Lisa Kronbichler
- Neuroscience Institute, Christian Doppler University Hospital, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Salzburg, Austria
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Christian Doppler University Hospital, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Sarah Said-Yürekli
- Department of Neurology, Christian Doppler University Hospital, Paracelsus Medical University, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience Salzburg, member of the European Reference Network EpiCARE, Salzburg, Austria
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience/Department of Psychology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Paris Lodron University, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Margarita Kirschner
- Department of Neurology, Christian Doppler University Hospital, Paracelsus Medical University, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience Salzburg, member of the European Reference Network EpiCARE, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Laura Zamarian
- Department of Neurology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Elisabeth Schmid
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Christian Doppler University Hospital, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria
| | | | - Julia Höfler
- Department of Neurology, Christian Doppler University Hospital, Paracelsus Medical University, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience Salzburg, member of the European Reference Network EpiCARE, Salzburg, Austria
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Rainer LJ, Kronbichler M, Kuchukhidze G, Trinka E, Langthaler PB, Kronbichler L, Said-Yuerekli S, Kirschner M, Zimmermann G, Höfler J, Schmid E, Braun M. Emotional Word Processing in Patients With Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy. Front Neurol 2022; 13:875950. [PMID: 35720080 PMCID: PMC9201996 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2022.875950] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2022] [Accepted: 05/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Objective According to Panksepp's hierarchical emotion model, emotion processing relies on three functionally and neuroanatomically distinct levels. These levels comprise subcortical networks (primary level), the limbic system (secondary level), and the neocortex (tertiary level) and are suggested to serve differential emotional processing. We aimed to validate and extend previous evidence of discrete and dimensional emotion processing in patient with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME). Methods We recorded brain activity of patients with JME and healthy controls in response to lexical decisions to words reflecting the discrete emotion fear and the affective dimension negativity previously suggested to rely on different brain regions and to reflect different levels of processing. In all study participants, we tested verbal cognitive functions, as well as the relationship of psychiatric conditions, seizure types and duration of epilepsy and emotional word processing. Results In support of the hierarchical emotion model, we found an interaction of discrete emotion and affective dimensional processing in the right amygdala likely to reflect secondary level processing. Brain activity related to affective dimensional processing was found in the right inferior frontal gyrus and is suggested to reflect tertiary level processing. Psychiatric conditions, type of seizure nor mono- vs. polytherapy and duration of epilepsy within patients did not have any effect on the processing of emotional words. In addition, no differences in brain activity or response times between patients and controls were observed, despite neuropsychological testing revealed slightly decreased verbal intelligence, verbal fluency and reading speed in patients with JME. Significance These results were interpreted to be in line with the hierarchical emotion model and to highlight the amygdala's role in processing biologically relevant stimuli, as well as to suggest a semantic foundation of affective dimensional processing in prefrontal cortex. A lack of differences in brain activity of patients with JME and healthy controls in response to the emotional content of words could point to unaffected implicit emotion processing in patients with JME.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucas Johannes Rainer
- Department of Neurology, Christian-Doppler Medical Centre, Paracelsus Medical University, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience Salzburg, Member of the European Reference Network, Epicare, Salzburg, Austria
- Neuroscience Institute, Christian-Doppler Medical Centre, Paracelsus Medical University, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Salzburg, Austria
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy & Psychosomatics, Christian-Doppler Medical Centre, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Martin Kronbichler
- Neuroscience Institute, Christian-Doppler Medical Centre, Paracelsus Medical University, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Salzburg, Austria
- Department of Psychology, Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultaet, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Paris-Lodron University, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Giorgi Kuchukhidze
- Department of Neurology, Christian-Doppler Medical Centre, Paracelsus Medical University, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience Salzburg, Member of the European Reference Network, Epicare, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Eugen Trinka
- Department of Neurology, Christian-Doppler Medical Centre, Paracelsus Medical University, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience Salzburg, Member of the European Reference Network, Epicare, Salzburg, Austria
- Neuroscience Institute, Christian-Doppler Medical Centre, Paracelsus Medical University, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Salzburg, Austria
- Department of Public Health, Health Services Research and Health Technology Assessment, UMIT–University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology, Hall in Tirol, Austria
- Karl-Landsteiner Institute for Neurorehabilitation and Space Neurology, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Patrick Benjamin Langthaler
- Department of Neurology, Christian-Doppler Medical Centre, Paracelsus Medical University, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience Salzburg, Member of the European Reference Network, Epicare, Salzburg, Austria
- Department of Mathematics, Paris-Lodron University, Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultaet, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Lisa Kronbichler
- Neuroscience Institute, Christian-Doppler Medical Centre, Paracelsus Medical University, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Salzburg, Austria
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy & Psychosomatics, Christian-Doppler Medical Centre, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Sarah Said-Yuerekli
- Department of Neurology, Christian-Doppler Medical Centre, Paracelsus Medical University, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience Salzburg, Member of the European Reference Network, Epicare, Salzburg, Austria
- Department of Psychology, Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultaet, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Paris-Lodron University, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Margarita Kirschner
- Department of Neurology, Christian-Doppler Medical Centre, Paracelsus Medical University, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience Salzburg, Member of the European Reference Network, Epicare, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Georg Zimmermann
- Team Biostatistics and Big Medical Data, IDA Lab Salzburg, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria
- Research and Innovation Management, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Julia Höfler
- Department of Neurology, Christian-Doppler Medical Centre, Paracelsus Medical University, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience Salzburg, Member of the European Reference Network, Epicare, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Elisabeth Schmid
- Department of Neurology, Christian-Doppler Medical Centre, Paracelsus Medical University, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience Salzburg, Member of the European Reference Network, Epicare, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Mario Braun
- Department of Psychology, Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultaet, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Paris-Lodron University, Salzburg, Austria
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