Recognition of facial emotions and identity in patients with mesial temporal lobe and idiopathic generalized epilepsy: An eye-tracking study

Abstract Purpose To describe visual scanning pattern for facial identity recognition (FIR) and emotion recognition (FER) in patients with idiopathic generalized (IGE) and mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE). Secondary endpoint was to correlate the results with cognitive function. Methods Benton Facial Recognition Test (BFRT) and Ekman&Friesen series were performed for FIR and FER respectively in 23 controls, 20 IGE and 19 MTLE patients. Eye movements were recorded by a Hi-Speed eye-tracker system. Neuropsychological tools explored cognitive function. Results Correct FIR rate was 78% in controls, 70.7% in IGE and 67.4% ( p =0.009) in MTLE patients. FER hits reached 82.7% in controls, 74.3% in IGE ( p =0.006) and 73.4% in MTLE ( p =0.002) groups. IGE patients failed in disgust ( p =0.005) and MTLE ones in fear ( p =0.009) and disgust ( p =0.03). FER correlated with neuropsychological scores, particularly verbal fluency ( r =0.542, p Conclusion FIR was impaired in MTLE patients, and FER in both IGE and MTLE, particularly for fear and disgust. Although not statistically significant, those with impaired FER tended to perform more diffuse eye-tracking over the faces and have cognitive dysfunction.