Musicogenic epilepsy

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Musicogenic epilepsy
Specialty Neurology

Musicogenic epilepsy is a form of reflex epilepsy with seizures elicited by special stimuli. [1] [2]

It has probably been described for the first time in 1605 by the French philosopher and scholar Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540-1609). [3] Later publications were, in the eighteenth century, among others, by the German physician Samuel Schaarschmidt, [4] in the nineteenth century 1823 by the British physician John C. Cooke, [5] 1881 by the British neurologist and epileptologist William Richard Gowers, [6] as well as in 1913 by the Russian neurologist, clinical neurophysiologist and psychiatrist Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev. [7] In 1937 the British neurologist Macdonald Critchley coined the term for the first time [8] and classified it as a form of reflex epilepsy. [9]

Most patients have temporal lobe epilepsy. [10] Listening, probably also thinking or playing, [11] of usually very specific music with an emotional content triggers focal seizures with or without loss of awareness, occasionally also evolving to bilateral tonic-clonic seizures.

Although musicality is at least in non-musicians predominantly located in the right temporal lobe, the seizure onset may also be left-hemispherical. Of the approximately 100 patients reported in the literature so far, about 75% had temporal lobe epilepsy, women were slightly more affected, and the mean age of onset was about 28 years. [12] Ictal EEG and SPECT findings [13] [14] as well as functional MRI studies [15] localized the epileptogenic area predominantly in the right temporal lobe. Treatment with epilepsy surgery leading to complete seizure freedom has been reported. [16] [17]

See also

Related Research Articles

A headache is often present in patients with epilepsy. If the headache occurs in the vicinity of a seizure, it is defined as peri-ictal headache, which can occur either before (pre-ictal) or after (post-ictal) the seizure, to which the term ictal refers. An ictal headache itself may or may not be an epileptic manifestation. In the first case it is defined as ictal epileptic headache or simply epileptic headache. It is a real painful seizure, that can remain isolated or be followed by other manifestations of the seizure. On the other hand, the ictal non-epileptic headache is a headache that occurs during a seizure but it is not due to an epileptic mechanism. When the headache does not occur in the vicinity of a seizure it is defined as inter-ictal headache. In this case it is a disorder autonomous from epilepsy, that is a comorbidity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruben Kuzniecky</span>

Ruben Kuzniecky, M.D. is Vice-chair academic affairs and professor of neurology at Northwell Health specializing in the field of epilepsy, epilepsy surgery and neuro-imaging.

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Reflex seizures are epileptic seizures that are consistently induced by a specific stimulus or trigger making them distinct from other epileptic seizures, which are usually unprovoked. Reflex seizures are otherwise similar to unprovoked seizures and may be focal, generalized, myoclonic, or absence seizures. Epilepsy syndromes characterized by repeated reflex seizures are known as reflex epilepsies. Photosensitive seizures are often myoclonic, absence, or focal seizures in the occipital lobe, while musicogenic seizures are associated with focal seizures in the temporal lobe.

Frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE) is a neurological disorder that is characterized by brief, recurring seizures arising in the frontal lobes of the brain, that often occur during sleep. It is the second most common type of epilepsy after temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), and is related to the temporal form in that both forms are characterized by partial (focal) seizures.

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Electrocorticography (ECoG), or intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG), is a type of electrophysiological monitoring that uses electrodes placed directly on the exposed surface of the brain to record electrical activity from the cerebral cortex. In contrast, conventional electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes monitor this activity from outside the skull. ECoG may be performed either in the operating room during surgery or outside of surgery. Because a craniotomy is required to implant the electrode grid, ECoG is an invasive procedure.

Seizure types most commonly follow the classification proposed by the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) in 1981. These classifications have been updated in 2017. Distinguishing between seizure types is important since different types of seizure may have different causes, outcomes and treatments.

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Benign Rolandic epilepsy or self-limited epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes is the most common epilepsy syndrome in childhood. Most children will outgrow the syndrome, hence the label benign. The seizures, sometimes referred to as sylvian seizures, start around the central sulcus of the brain.

Panayiotopoulos syndrome is a common idiopathic childhood-related seizure disorder that occurs exclusively in otherwise normal children and manifests mainly with autonomic epileptic seizures and autonomic status epilepticus. An expert consensus has defined Panayiotopoulos syndrome as "a benign age-related focal seizure disorder occurring in early and mid-childhood. It is characterized by seizures, often prolonged, with predominantly autonomic symptoms, and by an EEG [electroencephalogram] that shows shifting and/or multiple foci, often with occipital predominance."

Vertiginous epilepsy is infrequently the first symptom of a seizure, characterized by a feeling of vertigo. When it occurs, there is a sensation of rotation or movement that lasts for a few seconds before full seizure activity. While the specific causes of this disease are speculative there are several methods for diagnosis, the most important being the patient's recall of episodes. Most times, those diagnosed with vertiginous seizures are left to self-manage their symptoms or are able to use anti-epileptic medication to dampen the severity of their symptoms.

People with epilepsy may be classified into different syndromes based on specific clinical features. These features include the age at which seizures begin, the seizure types, and EEG findings, among others. Identifying an epilepsy syndrome is useful as it helps determine the underlying causes as well as deciding what anti-seizure medication should be tried. Epilepsy syndromes are more commonly diagnosed in infants and children. Some examples of epilepsy syndromes include benign rolandic epilepsy, childhood absence epilepsy and juvenile myoclonic epilepsy. Severe syndromes with diffuse brain dysfunction caused, at least partly, by some aspect of epilepsy, are also referred to as epileptic encephalopathies. These are associated with frequent seizures that are resistant to treatment and severe cognitive dysfunction, for instance Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and West syndrome.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Occipital epilepsy</span> Medical condition

Occipital epilepsy is a neurological disorder that arises from excessive neural activity in the occipital lobe of the brain that may or may not be symptomatic. Occipital lobe epilepsy is fairly rare, and may sometimes be misdiagnosed as migraine when symptomatic. Epileptic seizures are the result of synchronized neural activity that is excessive, and may stem from a failure of inhibitory neurons to regulate properly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fabrice Bartolomei</span> French neurophysiologist

Fabrice Bartolomei is a French neurophysiologist, and University Professor at Aix-Marseille University (AMU), leading the Service de Neurophysiologie Clinique of the Timone Hospital at the Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Marseille, and he is the medical director of the ‘Centre Saint-Paul - Hopital Henri Gastaut’. He is the coordinator of the clinical network CINAPSE that is dedicated to the management of adult and pediatric cases of severe epilepsies and leader of the Federation Hospitalo-Universitaire Epinext. He is also member of the research unit Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes](INS), UMR1106, Inserm - AMU.

Musicogenic seizure, also known as music-induced seizure, is a rare type of seizure, with an estimated prevalence of 1 in 10,000,000 individuals, that arises from disorganized or abnormal brain electrical activity when a person hears or is exposed to a specific type of sound or musical stimuli. There are challenges when diagnosing a music-induced seizure due to the broad scope of triggers, and time delay between a stimulus and seizure. In addition, the causes of musicogenic seizures are not well-established as solely limited cases and research have been discovered and conducted respectively. Nevertheless, the current understanding of the mechanism behind musicogenic seizure is that music triggers the part of the brain that is responsible for evoking an emotion associated with that music. Dysfunction in this system leads to an abnormal release of dopamine, eventually inducing seizure.

Malignant migrating partial seizures of infancy (MMPSI) is a rare epileptic syndrome that onsets before 6 months of age, commonly in the first few weeks of life. Once seizures start, the site of seizure activity repeatedly migrates from one area of the brain to another, with few periods of remission in between. These seizures are 'focal' (updated term for 'partial'), meaning they do not affect both sides of the brain at the same time. These continuous seizures cause damage to the brain, hence the descriptor 'malignant.'

References

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  2. "music and epilepsy". Epilepsy Society. 2015-08-10. Retrieved 2017-09-16.
  3. Scaliger JJ. Le Loirier’s Treatise of Spectres (1605; cited after Critchley 1937)
  4. Schaarschmidt A, Hrsg. D(r.) Samuel Schaarschmidts Medicinischer und Chirurgischer Nachrichten sechster Theil, mit einem Register nebst einer Vorrede versehen. Berlin, J. J. Schütz 1748: 93–97
  5. Cooke J. History and Method of Cure of the Various Species of Epilepsy: Being the Second Part of the Second Vol of: A Treatise on Nervous Diseases. London, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown 1823; Reprint: Birmingham, Alabama, The Classics of Medicine Library, Gryphon Editions 1984: 63
  6. Gowers WR. Epilepsy and Other Chronic Convulsive Diseases: Their Causes, Symptoms & Treatment. London, J. & A. Churchill 1881
  7. Bechterev VM. O reflektornoi epilepsi pod oliyaniemevyookovich razdrazheniye [Artikel in Russisch] Obozrenie Psichiat Nevrol 1914; 15: 513–520
  8. Critchley M. Musicogenic epilepsy. Brain 1937; 60: 13–27
  9. "Musicogenic epilepsy and epileptic music: a seizure's song (PDF Download Available)". ResearchGate. Retrieved 2017-09-16.
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