title: Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy impairs advanced social cognition.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Although memory, language, and executive functions have been extensively studied in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE), investigations into advanced social cognitive abilities have been neglected. In the present study, we investigated the ability to detect social faux pas and studied possible mediating clinical and demographic variables in patients with MTLE compared with patients with an epilepsy not originating within the MTLE and healthy controls.
  
  
  METHODS
  The 27 MTLE patients (16 were investigated pre- and 11 postoperatively), 27 patients with an extramesiotemporal epilepsy (except frontal lobe epilepsy), and 12 healthy controls performed a shortened version of the faux-pas test. Additionally, we used standardized tests to measure intelligence. Only patients with intact reading-comprehension abilities were included in the study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  MTLE patients, both pre- and postoperative, performed the faux-pas test significantly worse than patients with extramesiotemporal lobe epilepsy and healthy controls. The latter two groups showed comparable performance. No statistical association was found between the MTLE patients' deficit in recognizing a faux pas and the variables IQ, age, age at seizure onset, and duration of epilepsy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We report for the first time that patients with MTLE are specifically impaired in recognizing faux pas, suggesting that MTLE as such is a specific etiology of deficits in higher-order social cognition.
authors.affiliation: Swiss Epilepsy Center, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schacher
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Winkler
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Grunwald
authors.forename: Guenter
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kraemer
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kurthen
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Reed
authors.forename: Hennric
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jokeit
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D015897:Comorbidity; D004644:Emotions; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D008297:Male; D009633:Nonverbal Communication / Q000502:physiology; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D012938:Social Perception; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology