Sexual auras: predominance of epileptic activity within the mesial temporal lobe

The occurrence of sexual auras (SAs), defined as erotic feelings accompanied by sexual arousal and orgasm, was investigated in 244 consecutive patients with medically refractory focal epilepsy. All patients were evaluated with prolonged video/EEG monitoring, high-resolution MRI, and the Wada test. One female and two male patients with hippocampal sclerosis and /or atrophy experienced SAs. In accordance with the findings on interictal and ictal EEGs, the epileptogenic zone could be localized to the speech-dominant mesial temporal lobe in one case and to the non-speech-dominant mesial temporal lobe in two cases. All patients were treated by selective amygdalohippocampectomy. Our results indicate that: (1) SAs occur in men and women, (2) SAs occur predominantly in seizures originating from the nondominant temporal lobe (but may also be associated with seizure onset in the dominant hemisphere), and (3) SAs point toward a seizure onset in mesial temporal structures.