[Psychogenic NonEpileptic Seizures: Current Knowledge and Contributions of the Study of Emotions]

Psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES) are paroxysmal attacks that can imitate epileptic seizures but do not have a neurological origin. There has been mounting interest these last few years to unravel psychological and neuronal factors that contribute to the development of PNES. The objective of this review is twofold. First, we examine recent contributions of clinical and researches studies to define the main features of PNES. Then, we focus on the possible link between changes in processing of emotional information and the onset of PNES. In this article, we identify promising directions for future research and argue that affective neuroscience may provide original findings to better understand this disease.