Emotional Lived in Patients Suffering From Psychogenic Nonepileptic Seizures : Study by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Common Inclusion Criteria:

• Female,
• Right-handed
• Affiliation to the French social security system,
• Informed signing of the study consent.

Specific Inclusion Criteria for PNES group :

• PNES diagnosed by a neurologist specialized in epilepsy, based on clinical symptoms analysis and video-EEG recording,
• Absence of concomitant epilepsy.

Specific Inclusion Criteria for PTSD group : PTSD diagnosed by a psychiatrist, based on clinical symptoms as recorded in DSM5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).

Specific Inclusion Criteria for healthy controls : Healthy controls will be paired up with patients on age and level of schooling criteria.

Exclusion criteria

common criteria for all groups:

• Neurological history or comorbidity (epilepsy included),
• Current neurological treatment,
• Posology change or introduction of psychoactive treatment dating back to less than a month,
• Psychotic comorbidity (schizophrenia),
• Addiction history apart for smoking,
• History of head trauma,
• Mental retardation,
• Being the subject of articles L.1121-5 to L.1121-8 and L1122-1-2 of the French Code of Public Health (i.e. being a not responsible adult),
• Lack of French language proficiency or inability to understand instructions,
• Uncorrected visual impairment,
• Any contraindication to MRI (pacemaker, ferromagnetic foreign body, claustrophobia, etc.).

Specific exclusion Criteria for PNES group : Diagnosis of PNES challenged or denied by the patient.

Specific exclusion Criteria for PTSD group :

• Diagnosis of PTSD challenged or denied by the patient, current or history of functional neurological symptom disorder,
• History of PNES (conversion disorder).

Specific exclusion Criteria for healthy controls :

• History of PTSD,
• History of PNES (conversion disorder).