Affiliations: Neurological Rehabilitation Clinic, Stora Sköndal
Foundation, Sköndal, Sweden | Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of
Behavioural Sciences and Philosophy, University of Turku, Turku, Finland | School of Humanities and Informatics, University of
Skövde, Skövde, Sweden
Abstract: Despite the complexity and methodological difficulties in defining
the concept of consciousness, it is a central concept in epileptology, and
should thus be tractable for scientific analysis. In the present article, a
two-dimensional model consisting of concepts related to the level and the
contents of consciousness will be presented. This model has been found to be
well suited for the description of seizure-induced alterations of
consciousness, and is supported both by findings from neuroimaging and
electrophysiological studies as well as from phenomenological studies. Further,
we will review both traditional introspective methods as well as methods that
have recently been developed or utilized in epilepsy research, summarize the
main findings concerning first person experiences during epileptic seizures
acquired with some of these methods, and discuss their strengths and
weaknesses.
Keywords: Epilepsy, seizures, ictal, level of consciousness, content of consciousness, Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI), Ictal Consciousness Inventory (ICI), Responsiveness in Epilepsy Scale (RES), EpiC (Epilepsy-specific Content analysis of contents of
consciousness in partial seizures)
