SocrAltSocial Cognition Network Mapping in Epilepsy Patients

This study focuses on understanding social cognition, which is the ability to understand others' behaviors and emotions, and adapt one's own behavior accordingly. It's a high-order cognitive function that involves several processes like identifying social information, decoding it, inferring the emotional state of others, and using that information to adjust one's behavior. Social cognition deficiencies are found in many neurological or psychiatric diseases, including epilepsy, and can lead to a substantial deterioration in the quality of life of the patients. The study aims to create a comprehensive map of the social cognition network in the brain, as current understanding is limited to specific aspects like facial emotion recognition. The study is particularly interested in patients with drug-resistant medial temporal lobe epilepsy. Participants in this study will undergo a complete neuropsychological assessment, including a dedicated assessment for social cognition. They will also undergo neuroimaging, which includes structural and functional scans. The structural scans will assess the morphology and characteristics of white matter tracts involved in social cognition, while the functional scans will look at brain activity during specific social cognition tasks. The study will analyze both structural and functional connectivity to assess alterations in social cognition networks in patients with epilepsy. A second assessment will be performed one year post-surgery to assess the reorganization of the social cognition network after epilepsy remission.