TY - JOUR
T1 - Epileptic qualia and self-awareness
T2 - a third dimension for consciousness
AU - Hanoǧlu, Lütfü
AU - Özkara, Çiǧdem
AU - Yalçiner, Betül
AU - Nani, Andrea
AU - Cavanna, Andrea E.
PY - 2014/1
Y1 - 2014/1
N2 - Over the last few decades, there has been increasing awareness among epileptologists about the need to refine our understanding and assessment of ictal consciousness, focusing on both subjective and behavioral aspects of seizures. Specifically, there have been suggestions that both the internal and external milieux - the former related to the phenomenal qualia of experience, the latter related to behavior - must be taken into account for a better understanding of altered states of consciousness in epilepsy. It has been proposed that clinical and experimental data from patients experiencing alterations of consciousness during epileptic seizures could be better understood within a bidimensional model, in which any manifestation of conscious experience can be plotted according to the level and contents of consciousness. The 'level' axis measures the degree of alertness/arousal, whereas the 'contents' axis measures the vividness of specific experiential phenomena reported by the patient. We argue that certain seizure types might require more rigorous conceptual models for their characterization, and we highlight the potential usefulness of a more refined framework which includes a further dimension related to the 'self', in addition to those of 'level' and 'contents'. This model could be visualized in a three-dimensional space to allow fine-grained distinctions between epileptic seizures.
AB - Over the last few decades, there has been increasing awareness among epileptologists about the need to refine our understanding and assessment of ictal consciousness, focusing on both subjective and behavioral aspects of seizures. Specifically, there have been suggestions that both the internal and external milieux - the former related to the phenomenal qualia of experience, the latter related to behavior - must be taken into account for a better understanding of altered states of consciousness in epilepsy. It has been proposed that clinical and experimental data from patients experiencing alterations of consciousness during epileptic seizures could be better understood within a bidimensional model, in which any manifestation of conscious experience can be plotted according to the level and contents of consciousness. The 'level' axis measures the degree of alertness/arousal, whereas the 'contents' axis measures the vividness of specific experiential phenomena reported by the patient. We argue that certain seizure types might require more rigorous conceptual models for their characterization, and we highlight the potential usefulness of a more refined framework which includes a further dimension related to the 'self', in addition to those of 'level' and 'contents'. This model could be visualized in a three-dimensional space to allow fine-grained distinctions between epileptic seizures.
KW - consciousness
KW - content
KW - epilepsy
KW - epileptic qualia
KW - level
KW - self
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84888436661&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.yebeh.2013.09.010
DO - 10.1016/j.yebeh.2013.09.010
M3 - Article
C2 - 24100248
AN - SCOPUS:84888436661
SN - 1525-5050
VL - 30
SP - 62
EP - 65
JO - Epilepsy and Behavior
JF - Epilepsy and Behavior
ER -