Role du noyau amygdalien dans la survenue de manifestations oro-alimentaires au cours des crises épileptiques chez l'homme*

Summary The authors study the role of amygdala dysfunction in cases of oro-alimentary signs occuring in seizures recorded during a series of stereo-electroencephalographic investigations (S.E.E.G.) carried out for neurosurgical purposes. The patients under study have an epilepsy that is resistant to drug therapy. This work concerns 89 seizures with « oro-alimentary motor activityrecorded in 59 patients with whom it was possible to establish sufficiently rigourous anatomical — electrical — clinical correlations. This study enabled us to show that : -- a seizure characterized only by « oro-alimentary motorsigns (with the exclusion of swallowing movements) is related to a discharge that directly involves the amygdala. -- a critical discharge affecting the anterior temporal region is expressed as : oro-alimentary activity either accompanied or not by other signs (breaking contact is exceptional). -- late « oro-alimentary motor activityalso indicates disorganization of the amygdala, but offers no conclusion on the origin of the discharge.