Emotion recognition in temporal lobe epilepsy: A systematic review

Area of Science:

• Neurology
• Neuropsychology
• Epilepsy Research

Background:

• Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is the most common focal epilepsy.
• Understanding emotion recognition (ER) deficits in TLE is of growing clinical interest.
• Existing literature presents conflicting findings regarding ER impairments in TLE, particularly concerning lateralization (right vs. left TLE).

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review and synthesize existing research on emotion recognition deficits in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy.
• To clarify patterns of ER impairments across different emotions and sensory modalities in TLE.
• To investigate potential differences in ER deficits between right and left TLE.

Main Methods:

• A systematic literature search was conducted across Embase, MEDLINE, PsychINFO, and Pubmed from 1990 to March 2015.
• Reference lists of identified studies were also reviewed.
• 43 studies were included in the narrative synthesis following the review of 996 citations.

Main Results:

• Emotion recognition deficits are consistently reported in TLE patients across studies.
• A significant deficit in recognizing fear is prevalent, followed by impairments in recognizing sadness and disgust.
• Deficits are observed in both visual and auditory processing of emotions, with visual domain deficits being particularly noted for fear recognition.

Conclusions:

• Recognition of negative emotions, especially fear, is commonly impaired in individuals with TLE.
• While ER deficits are consistent, evidence regarding the laterality of these deficits (right vs. left TLE) remains conflicting.
• Future research should utilize more ecologically valid tests and conduct longitudinal studies to assess the impact of treatments like anterior temporal lobectomy on ER and social functioning.