Alterations in the contents of consciousness in partial epileptic seizures.
Epilepsy research suffers from a deficiency of systematic studies concerning the phenomenology of the contents of consciousness during seizures, partially because of the lack of suitable research methods. The Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI), a standardized, valid, and reliable questionnaire, was used here to study which dimensions of the contents of consciousness are distorted during partial epileptic seizures compared with baseline. Further, the similarity of the altered pattern of subjective experiences across recurring seizures was also explored. Our results indicate that patients with epilepsy report alterations on most dimensions of the contents of consciousness in conjunction with seizures, but individual seizure experiences remain similar from one seizure to another. The PCI was found suitable for the assessment of subjective experiences during epileptic seizures and could be a valuable tool in providing new information about phenomenal consciousness in epilepsy in both the research and clinical settings.
Johanson
Mirja
M
Neurological Rehabilitation Clinic, Stora Sköndal Foundation, 128 85 Sköndal, Sweden. mirjajohansson@bredband.net
Valli
Katja
K
Revonsuo
Antti
A
Chaplin
John E
JE
Wedlund
Jan-Eric
JE
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001288:Attention; D001364:Awareness; D003244:Consciousness Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D004213:Dissociative Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D004828:Epilepsies, Partial / Q000175:diagnosis*; D017029:Epilepsy, Complex Partial / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010469:Perceptual Distortion; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012008:Recurrence; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires