Laughter is normally the reflection of a state of joy, is associated with well-being and has multiple benefits for health both at a physiological and psychological level. However, sometimes laughter is a sign that something is wrong with the brain. This is what happens in gelastic epilepsy, a rare form of epileptic seizures in which the seizures appear in the form of laughter . Although it is usual for this laugh to sound mechanical and unnatural, it is curious that in some cases it can seem normal, and even be contagious.
This type of epilepsy can begin in the first days of life and its most common cause is tumors in the hypothalamus, called hypothalamic hamartomas. Sometimes gelastic epilepsy is the only symptom of hamartoma, but with some frequency the clinical picture is complicated by precocious puberty, cognitive and behavioral alterations.
According to research carried out by the Institute of Psychology of the University of Freiburg in Germany, and published in the scientific journal Epilepsy , more than half of patients suffering from this type of neurological pathology have their IQ decreased in adulthood presenting, in addition, problems with memory, attention, executive functioning and visual-perceptual abilities. The extent of the alterations in the mental functioning of the patients seems to depend on aspects such as the size of the tumor and the number of monthly partial seizures suffered.
Drug treatment does not usually work in these cases, so neurosurgery is usually one of the most widely used interventions with the aim of separating the hamartoma from the surrounding tissue, a treatment that, on the other hand, can also have important consequences on the brain .
Although the clinical cases are few, it is relevant to find ways to help these patients, since from childhood they have a lower quality of life even than other children with diseases such as migraine, and have, in general, a worse school performance.
Marisa Fernández, Senior Neuropsychologist, Unobrain
