title: Recovery from emotion recognition impairment after temporal lobectomy.
abstract: Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) can be associated with emotion recognition impairment that can be particularly severe in patients with early onset seizures (1-3). Whereas, there is growing evidence that memory and language can improve in seizure-free patients after anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL) (4), the effects of surgery on emotional processing are still unknown. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate short-term reorganization of networks engaged in facial emotion recognition in MTLE patients. Behavioral and fMRI data were collected from six patients before and after ATL. During the fMRI scan, patients were asked to make a gender decision on fearful and neutral faces. Behavioral data demonstrated that two patients with early onset right MTLE were impaired in fear recognition while fMRI results showed they lacked specific activations for fearful faces. Post-ATL behavioral data showed improved emotion recognition ability, while fMRI demonstrated the recruitment of a functional network for fearful face processing. Our results suggest that ATL elicited brain plasticity mechanisms allowing behavioral and fMRI improvement in emotion recognition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia , Modena , Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Benuzzi
authors.affiliation: OPTIMA Project, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine and FMRIB Centre, University of Oxford , Oxford , UK.
authors.forename: Giovanna
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zamboni
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia , Modena , Italy.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Meletti
authors.affiliation: Health Physics Department, AUSL Modena , Modena , Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Serafini
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia , Modena , Italy.
authors.forename: Fausta
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lui
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia , Modena , Italy.
authors.forename: Patrizia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Baraldi
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia , Modena , Italy.
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Duzzi
authors.affiliation: IRCCS Institute of Neurological Sciences, Bellaria Hospital , Bologna , Italy ; Danish Epilepsy Center, Epilepsihospitalet , Dianalund , Denmark.
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rubboli
authors.affiliation: IRCCS Institute of Neurological Sciences, Bellaria Hospital , Bologna , Italy.
authors.forename: Carlo Alberto
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Tassinari
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia , Modena , Italy.
authors.forename: Paolo Frigio
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Nichelli
keywords: emotion; facial expression; functional magnetic resonance; functional recovery; mesial temporal lobe epilepsy