Abstracts

Interictal behavioral changes in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy have long been described. There still is substantial debate about the underlying nature of these behaviors. It has been suggest that study of social cognition in temporal lobe epilepsy may refocus this question., In this study we made use of an established paradigm (Schilbach et al. 2006) in which study participants are socially entrained by virtual characters showing facial expressions of variable social relevance. Patients with left temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) were shown dynamic animations in which virtual characters either look at the human observer directly (hereafter: ME) or look away towards someone else (OTHER). The virtual characters then exhibited different facial expressions that had been rated by controls as either socially relevant (SOC) or as arbitrary (ARB). Patients were asked to [apos]mind-read[apos] and rate the character[apos]s communicative intention., Behavioral data thus acquired show that TLE patients[apos] ratings differ significantly from those of normal controls indicating alterations of social cognition in temporal lobe epilepsy with a left sided focus., These findings are discussed and related to possible underlying functional disturbances of fronto-temporal neuroanatomy in TLE., (Supported by Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD).)