Abstracts

Rationale: We analyzed the facial emotion recognition in patients with drug-resistance epilepsy by measuring the reaction time and the differentiation between emotions. Compare the performance of patients with refractory TLE to drug treatment to an emotional memory task and healthy control subjects. Due to the interaction between the amygdala and hippocampus for emotional recognition, it is extremely important to assess this interaction and the proper operation of the function regulated by both areas are essential for daily living Methods: This study reports the emotional memory tasks in patients with refractory mesial temporal lobe epilepsy. Using an epileptic foci confirmation method with hippocampal depth electrodes, ten patients were chosen we were able to choose ten patients for each specific foci group. To measure their ability to identify emotions in facial expressions, we applied two different tests: an emotional recognition Ekman Battery test and an Emotion Recognition Task (CANTAB). Six basic emotions were chosen to measure the accuracy and the latency of the response. Results: Our results determined that the reaction time decreases with the number of trials in the group of patients with right foci  allso showed a longer latency than the left and control groups in relation to fear recognition. These results suggest an effect on emotional memory, a process that depends not only on temporal areas, but also involves functions related to visual memory and prefrontal regions, which are affected in patients with Right TLE. Conclusions: In agreement with these findings, patients with damage on the right temporal lobe were impaired for both tasks and they do not decrease their pattern of reaction time as the left and control groups have shown. Funding: Marysol Montes de Oca B is a Phd Candidate from Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and received fellowship from CONACYT.