Ictal laughter and crying: Should they be classified as automatisms?

Abstract

Gelastic seizures (GS) describe ictal laughter and are associated with hypothalamic lesions, as well as other cortical areas. Dacrystic seizures (DS), characterized by ictal crying, also have been reported in hypothalamic lesions and focal epilepsy. We describe a young girl with drug resistant focal dyscognitive seizures associated with gelastic and dacrystic features. However, neither laughter nor crying was correlated with a stereotyped electroencephalographic (EEG) pattern or involvement of a particular brain region. Additionally, based on the variety of epileptogenic foci associated with GS and DS in the literature, laughter and crying appear to represent ictal or peri-ictal automatisms.

A meta-analysis of case-reports and case-series of dacrystic epilepsy in children and adolescence

“…It was observed also that the chronology of published case reports and case series from year to year was not steady (Figure 2). 3,4,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] The study population was comprised of 21 patients of which DS alone cases were 7 (33%) and a combination of DS and GS were 14 (67%) in number (Table 1). The mean age was 6.…”

Gülmenin fizyolojisi: Beyin lezyonlarından gülme ile ilişkili yapıları anlama

“…54 Bununla birlikte, daha tipik olarak, iktal gülme mekaniktir ve bu sebeple doğal değildir. [53][54][55] Gelastik nöbetler sırasında, bazı hastalar neşe veya neşe içeren hoş duygular hissettiklerini tarif ederler. 31,56,57 Bununla birlikte hastaların belli bir bölümü ise gülme olaylarını uygunsuz olarak tanımlar ve gülmeleri esnasında hiçbir olumlu duygu hissetmezler.…”