Musicogenic epilepsy is a form of reflex epilepsy with seizures elicited by special stimuli.
It was probably described for the first time in 1605 by the French philosopher and scholar Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540-1609).Scaliger JJ. Le Loirier’s Treatise of Spectres (1605; cited after Critchley 1937) Later publications were, in the eighteenth century, among others, by the German physician Samuel Schaarschmidt,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 in the nineteenth century 1823 by the British physician John C. Cooke,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 1881 by the British neurologist and epileptologist William Richard Gowers,Gowers WR. Epilepsy and Other Chronic Convulsive Diseases: Their Causes, Symptoms & Treatment. London, J. & A. Churchill 1881 as well as in 1913 by the Russian neurologist, clinical neurophysiologist and psychiatrist Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev.Bechterev VM. O reflektornoi epilepsi pod oliyaniemevyookovich razdrazheniye [Artikel in Russisch] Obozrenie Psichiat Nevrol 1914; 15: 513–520 In 1937 the British neurologist Macdonald Critchley coined the term for the first timeCritchley M. Musicogenic epilepsy. Brain 1937; 60: 13–27 and classified it as a form of reflex epilepsy.
Most patients have temporal lobe epilepsy.Kaplan PW. Musicogenic epilepsy and epileptic music: a seizure’s song. Epilepsy Behav 2003; 4: 464–473 Listening, probably also thinking or playing,Sutherling WW, Hershman LM, Miller JQ, Lee SI. Seizures induced by playing music. Neurology 1980; 30: 1001–1004 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. Ictal EEG and SPECT findingsWieser 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: 200–207Gelisse P, Thomas P, Padovani R, et al. Ictal SPECT in a case of pure musicogenic epilepsy. Epileptic Disord 2003; 5: 133–137 as well as functional MRI studiesMarrosu F, Barberini L, Puligheddu M, et al. Combined EEG/fMRI recording in musicogenic epilepsy. Epilepsy Res 2009; 84: 77–81 localized the epileptogenic area predominantly in the right temporal lobe. Treatment with epilepsy surgery leading to complete seizure freedom has been reported.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: 1402–1406Hoppner AC, Dehnicke C, Kerling F, Schmitt FC. Zur Neurobiologie musikogener Epilepsien – resektiv operierte Patienten und funktionelle MRT-Untersuchungen. Z Epileptol 2016; 29: 7–15
See also Music-specific disorders Musicogenic seizure Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
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