Department of Neurology, Haga Hospital, The Hague, The Netherlands.
Department of Neurology, Ashford and St. Peter's Hospital, Chertsey, UK.
J Neurol. 2019 Jun;266(6):1501-1515. doi: 10.1007/s00415-019-09289-x. Epub 2019 Apr 10.
Musical hallucinations are poorly understood phenomena. Their relation with epilepsy was first described over a century ago, but never systematically explored. We, therefore, reviewed the literature, and assessed all descriptions of musical hallucinations attributed to epileptic activity. Our search yielded 191 articles, which together describe 983 unique patients, with 24 detailed descriptions of musical hallucinations related to epilepsy. We also describe six of our own patients. Based on the phenomenological descriptions and neurophysiological data, we distinguish four subgroups of epilepsy-related musical hallucination, comprising auras/ictal, inter-ictal and post-ictal phenomena, and phenomena related to brain stimulation. The case descriptions suggest that musical hallucinations in epilepsy can be conceptualised as lying on a continuum with other auditory hallucinations, including verbal auditory hallucinations, and-notably-tinnitus. To account for the underlying mechanism we propose a Bayesian model involving top-down and bottom-up prediction errors within the auditory network that incorporates findings from EEG and MEG studies. An analysis of phenomenological characteristics, pharmacological triggers, and treatment effects suggests wider ramifications for understanding musical hallucinations. We, therefore, conclude that musical hallucinations in epilepsy open a window to understanding these phenomena in a variety of conditions.
音乐性幻觉是一种尚未被充分了解的现象。其与癫痫之间的关系早在一个多世纪以前就已被首次描述,但从未得到系统的探究。因此,我们对文献进行了回顾,并评估了所有归因于癫痫活动的音乐性幻觉描述。我们的搜索共产生了 191 篇文章,这些文章共描述了 983 位具有独特音乐性幻觉的患者,其中 24 篇详细描述了与癫痫相关的音乐性幻觉。我们还描述了我们自己的 6 位患者。基于现象学描述和神经生理学数据,我们区分了与癫痫相关的音乐性幻觉的四个亚组,包括先兆/发作期、发作间期和发作后现象,以及与脑刺激相关的现象。这些病例描述表明,癫痫中的音乐性幻觉可以被视为与其他听觉幻觉(包括言语性听觉幻觉)以及——值得注意的是——耳鸣处于连续统一体上。为了说明潜在的机制,我们提出了一个贝叶斯模型,该模型涉及听觉网络内的自上而下和自下而上的预测误差,其中包含 EEG 和 MEG 研究的结果。对现象学特征、药物触发因素和治疗效果的分析表明,对音乐性幻觉的理解具有更广泛的意义。因此,我们得出结论,癫痫中的音乐性幻觉为理解各种情况下的这些现象打开了一扇窗户。