Musicogenic epilepsy explained

Musicogenic epilepsy
Field:	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

• Music-specific disorders
• Musicogenic seizure
• Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain

Notes and References

1. Stern. John. 2015. Musicogenic epilepsy. Handbook of Clinical Neurology. 129. 469–477. 10.1016/B978-0-444-62630-1.00026-3. 0072-9752. 25726285. 9780444626301.
2. News: music and epilepsy. 2015-08-10. Epilepsy Society. 2017-09-16. en.
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. Web site: Musicogenic epilepsy and epileptic music: a seizure's song (PDF Download Available). ResearchGate. en. 2017-09-16.
10. Kaplan PW. Musicogenic epilepsy and epileptic music: a seizure’s song. Epilepsy Behav 2003; 4: 464–473
11. Sutherling WW, Hershman LM, Miller JQ, Lee SI. Seizures induced by playing music. Neurology 1980; 30: 1001–1004
12. Book: Rose, Frank Clifford. Neurology of Music. 2010. World Scientific. 9781848162686. en.
13. Wieser HG, Hungerbühler H, Siegel AM, et al. Musicogenic epilepsy: review of the literature and case report with ictal single photon emission computed tomography. Epilepsia 1997; 38: 200–207
14. Gelisse P, Thomas P, Padovani R, et al. Ictal SPECT in a case of pure musicogenic epilepsy. Epileptic Disord 2003; 5: 133–137
15. Marrosu F, Barberini L, Puligheddu M, et al. Combined EEG/fMRI recording in musicogenic epilepsy. Epilepsy Res 2009; 84: 77–81
16. Tayah TF, Abou-Khalil B, Gilliam FG et al. Musicogenic seizures can arise from multiple temporal lobe foci: intracranial EEG analyses of three patients. Epilepsia 2006; 47: 1402–1406
17. Hoppner AC, Dehnicke C, Kerling F, Schmitt FC. Zur Neurobiologie musikogener Epilepsien – resektiv operierte Patienten und funktionelle MRT-Untersuchungen. Z Epileptol 2016; 29: 7–15