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Epilepsy and Ecstatic Experiences: The Role of the Insula

Ecstatic epilepsy is a rare form of focal epilepsy in which the aura (beginning of the seizures) consists of a blissful state of mental clarity/feeling of certainty. Such a state has also been described as a “religious” or mystical experience. While this form of epilepsy has long been recognized as...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Picard, Fabienne, Bossaerts, Peter, Bartolomei, Fabrice
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8615543/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34827383
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11111384
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author Picard, Fabienne
Bossaerts, Peter
Bartolomei, Fabrice
author_facet Picard, Fabienne
Bossaerts, Peter
Bartolomei, Fabrice
author_sort Picard, Fabienne
collection PubMed
description Ecstatic epilepsy is a rare form of focal epilepsy in which the aura (beginning of the seizures) consists of a blissful state of mental clarity/feeling of certainty. Such a state has also been described as a “religious” or mystical experience. While this form of epilepsy has long been recognized as a temporal lobe epilepsy, we have accumulated evidence converging toward the location of the symptomatogenic zone in the dorsal anterior insula during the 10 last years. The neurocognitive hypothesis for the genesis of a mental clarity is the suppression of the interoceptive prediction errors and of the unexpected surprise associated with any incoming internal or external signal, usually processed by the dorsal anterior insula. This mimics a perfect prediction of the world and induces a feeling of certainty. The ecstatic epilepsy is thus an amazing model for the role of anterior insula in uncertainty and surprise.
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spelling pubmed-86155432021-11-26 Epilepsy and Ecstatic Experiences: The Role of the Insula Picard, Fabienne Bossaerts, Peter Bartolomei, Fabrice Brain Sci Review Ecstatic epilepsy is a rare form of focal epilepsy in which the aura (beginning of the seizures) consists of a blissful state of mental clarity/feeling of certainty. Such a state has also been described as a “religious” or mystical experience. While this form of epilepsy has long been recognized as a temporal lobe epilepsy, we have accumulated evidence converging toward the location of the symptomatogenic zone in the dorsal anterior insula during the 10 last years. The neurocognitive hypothesis for the genesis of a mental clarity is the suppression of the interoceptive prediction errors and of the unexpected surprise associated with any incoming internal or external signal, usually processed by the dorsal anterior insula. This mimics a perfect prediction of the world and induces a feeling of certainty. The ecstatic epilepsy is thus an amazing model for the role of anterior insula in uncertainty and surprise. MDPI 2021-10-22 /pmc/articles/PMC8615543/ /pubmed/34827383 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11111384 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Picard, Fabienne
Bossaerts, Peter
Bartolomei, Fabrice
Epilepsy and Ecstatic Experiences: The Role of the Insula
title Epilepsy and Ecstatic Experiences: The Role of the Insula
title_full Epilepsy and Ecstatic Experiences: The Role of the Insula
title_fullStr Epilepsy and Ecstatic Experiences: The Role of the Insula
title_full_unstemmed Epilepsy and Ecstatic Experiences: The Role of the Insula
title_short Epilepsy and Ecstatic Experiences: The Role of the Insula
title_sort epilepsy and ecstatic experiences: the role of the insula
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8615543/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34827383
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11111384
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