Emotion Recognition in Benign Epilepsy of Childhood With Centro-Temporal Spikes (BECTS)

Study Overview
=================
Brief Summary
-----------------
The social processes depend on complex cognitive mechanisms, which involve mainly the frontal and temporal lobe regions. Patients with early onset frontal and temporal lobe lesions might later develop important deficits in social integration. Accordingly, children with early onset temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) demonstrate altered emotion recognition.

Detailed Description
-----------------
Study design: Multicentre, Case-control study. Emotion recognition is a first step for the development of the capacity to judge the thoughts, intentions, and desires of others. In infants, the capacity to identify, distinguish, and interpret emotions is limited, but these processes are developing rapidly and innately during the first years of life, on the same neural bases as those described in adulthood. Children with BECTS show altered social behavior. In fact, deficit in social cognition could derive from brain dysfunction in the frontotemporal regions primarily affected in BECTS, since these regions are also viewed as playing an important role in social cognition and development of social skills. The investigators hypothesized that children with BECTS might have altered social cognitive skills and underlying neural networks.

Official Title
-----------------
Facial Emotion Decoding in Benign Partial Epilepsy of Childhood With Centrotemporal Spikes

Conditions
-----------------
BECTS, Epilepsy, Rolandic

Intervention / Treatment
-----------------
* Diagnostic Test: IDS;MMSPE;CDI 2;CBCL;tests of facial expression evaluation


Participation Criteria
=================
Eligibility Criteria
-----------------
Inclusion Criteria: children diagnosed with active BECTS (e.g. having at least one seizure with epileptiform abnormalities at EEG) treated or not with anti-epileptic drugs; age range between 6 and 11 infants who have not presented an epileptic seizure within 48 hours before the psychodiagnostic evaluation patients with a sleep EEG recording; MMSPE (Mini Mental State Pediatric Examination) ≥23.3 Exclusion Criteria: mental retardation presence of other neurological or severe neuropsychiatric disorders atypical EEG pattern (awake or asleep)

Ages Eligible for Study
-----------------
Minimum Age: 6 Years
Maximum Age: 11 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
-----------------
All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
-----------------
Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
=================
How is the study designed?
-----------------

Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Children with BECTS<br>Children with active BECTS according to state-of-the-art diagnostic criteria of ILAE (International League Against Epilepsy). Eligible subjects will be recruited at their first clinical observation in the epilepsy centers involved in the study. All subjects will perform five diagnostic evaluations named: IDS (Intelligence and Development Scale) MMSPE (Mini Mental State Pediatric Examination) CDI 2 (Children Depression Inventory 2) CBCL (Child Behavior Check List) Tests of facial expression evaluation | Diagnostic Test: IDS;MMSPE;CDI 2;CBCL;tests of facial expression evaluation<br>* Five pictures (including nonfacial features; i.e., hairs) were used for each emotion, giving a total of 25 trials.Stimuli consist of pictures of facial affect taken from the Ekman and Friesen series.<br>|
| Healthy children<br>Healthy controls matched for sex, age range, and education with no family history for epilepsy or other neuropsychiatric disorders. All subjects will perform the following tests: MMSPE (Mini Mental State Pediatric Examination) CDI 2 (Children Depression Inventory 2) CBCL (Child Behavior Check List) Tests of facial expression evaluation | Diagnostic Test: IDS;MMSPE;CDI 2;CBCL;tests of facial expression evaluation<br>* Five pictures (including nonfacial features; i.e., hairs) were used for each emotion, giving a total of 25 trials.Stimuli consist of pictures of facial affect taken from the Ekman and Friesen series.<br>|

What is the study measuring?
-----------------
Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Number (total amount) of errors in facial emotion recognition | A neuropsychologist will sign the number of errors in recognizing each facial emotion expression | an average of 1 year | 
| Rating of the intensity of facial expressions | A neuropsychologist will ask the subjects to rate (on a scale from 0 = not at all to 5 = very much) each stimulus with respect to the prototypical expression of that emotion | an average of 1 year | 
| Rating of the arousal of facial expressions | A neuropsychologist will ask the subjects to evaluate arousal in terms of feeling of high-low energy/wakefulness/alertness by rating each stimulus on a 9-point scale. | an average of 1 year | 
| Rating of the valence of facial expressions | A neuropsychologist will ask the subjects to evaluate valence in terms of feeling of high-low pleasantness-unpleasantness by rating each stimulus on a 9-point scale. | an average of 1 year | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| EEG abnormality lateralization and facial emotion recognition | The investigators will include in statistical analysis the side (dominant hemisphere vs. non-dominant) of EEGraphic abnormalities on awake/sleep recordings | an average of 1 year | 

 Terms related to the study
=================
Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
-----------------
Emotion, Social cognition, Childhood epilepsy