Imaging study identifies relationship between stress and catches

3 Dec. 2012 A study reported here on the 66th American epilepsy Society Annual Meeting has determined that a significant difference in the brain's response to stress in patients who believe stress is an important factor in their herd control relative to patients who do not hold this belief.

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Many epilepsy patients believe that stress is a factor in their herd control, while many other epilepsy patients do not need this perception. To the potential role of stress in these patients better understand, has a functional neuroimaging study of patients with left temporal lobe epilepsy under psychosocial stress imposed conducted by researchers in the departments of Neurology and Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Cincinnati. (Abstract # 1.184)

All subjects in the study were given math exercises to complete, initially simple problems during the control task and difficult problems during the stress task. Subjects were equipped with positive feedback during the simple mathematical problems and negative feedback during the difficult ones regardless of how well they were doing.

Both groups of patients responded to the math exercises with similar accuracy and response times. But patients who experienced stress to important in seizure control showed more brain activation during the stressful compared to non-stressful conditions. The activation was seen both bilateral (in the superior temporal gyrus, posterior Cingulate and parietal areas) and one-sided (in the left insula) in subjects who believe as important in their herd stress control; Whereas an increase in activation in the comparison group was not observed.

According to study author Jane b. Allendorfer, Ph.d., in the Department of Neurology, University of Alabama in Birmingham (previously at the University of Cincinnati where the study was conducted), "our study is the first to show a relationship between stress and brain activation in patients who believe stress as a factor in seizure control relative to patients who do not have this perception. We also assume that the difference in the brain activation patterns can be related to why some patients with epilepsy attacks more often than other patients. "

This study is supported by the Charles Shor Foundation for Epilepsy Research.

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