title: Facial emotion recognition in childhood: the effects of febrile seizures in the developing brain.
abstract: It has been documented that anteromedial temporal lobe dysfunction can cause impairment in emotional intelligence. In particular, medial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) is associated with disorders in emotion recognition from facial expressions. About one-third of patients with MTLE experienced febrile seizures (FSs) during childhood. In the present study, we investigated facial emotion recognition ability in a group of 38 school-aged children with antecedent FSs and in an age- and sex-matched control group. Children with abnormal general visuoperceptual abilities were excluded. Children with FSs showed lower recognition scores versus controls in both matching (28.64 vs 33.47; p<.0001) and labeling (21.25 vs 23.03; p=.001) facial emotions. Our findings support the hypothesis that FSs can be associated during childhood with a dysfunction within the neural network subserving the processing of facial expressions of the basic emotions.
authors.affiliation: Child Neuropsychiatry Unit, Department of Neuroscience, University-Hospital of Parma, Via Gramsci 14, Parma, Italy; Department of Life and Reproduction Sciences, University of Verona, P.le Scuro 10, Verona, Italy. Electronic address: gcantalupo@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Gaetano
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cantalupo
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Meletti
authors.forename: Alessia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Miduri
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mazzotta
authors.forename: Loreto
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rios-Pohl
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Benuzzi
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pisani
authors.forename: Carlo Alberto
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Tassinari
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cossu
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000473:pathology*; D002648:Child; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D003294:Seizures, Febrile / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
keywords: Amygdala; Emotional intelligence; Emotions; Epilepsy; Facial expression; Febrile convulsion; Limbic system; Medial temporal lobe; Pediatric neurology; Temporal lobe epilepsy