Cartography of Social Cognition Network and Their Alterations in Patients With Epilepsy

Social cognition, which refers to the ability to interpret social information and behave accordingly in a social environment, is crucial in everyday life. But this ability has been shown to be altered in patients with epilepsy, especially in medial temporal lobe epilepsy, which leads to a deterioration in the patient's quality of life. However, the mechanisms of those deficiencies remain largely unknown. The Team objective is to achieve a structural and functional cartography of the social cognition network in 20 healthy subjects and 20 patients with drug-resistant medial temporal lobe epilepsy (before and one year after resective surgery of the epileptogenic focus). Social cognition deficiencies will be assessed using a specifically dedicated neuropsychological assessment validated in French (Batteries de Cognition Sociale BCS). Brain structural analyses will be performed on a 3-Tesla MRI (3T MRI), including an anatomical T1 sequence, a High Angular Resolution Diffusion Imaging (HARDI) to assess the morphology and macrostructural characteristics of long and short white matter tracts involved in social cognition, and quantitative MRI and Hybrid Diffusion Imaging (HYDI) to assess their microstructure. Functional connectivity will be assessed using an ultra-high-field 7-Tesla MRI (7T MRI), with acquisition in resting state and during specific social cognition tasks. Joint analysis of structural and functional connectivity will enable the team to assess the alterations of social cognition networks in patients with epilepsy and their reorganisations after epilepsy surgery.