Abstract
The study aimed to investigate comprehension of emotion expressed through tone of voice (emotional prosody) in children with rolandic epilepsy. The area of the brain associated with rolandic epilepsy has also been associated with comprehension of emotional prosody. An assessment of emotional prosodic comprehension was developed, using a pilot study, and administered to seventeen children with rolandic epilepsy (aged 5 to 16 years) and seventeen ‘typical’ children matched for age, gender and estimated intelligence. The assessment included facial as well as vocal (prosodic) emotional test stimuli. The children with rolandic epilepsy scored significantly above chance level on the emotional prosodic test items, identifying almost two thirds of the stimuli correctly. However, their scores on the emotional prosodic test items were significantly lower than those of the control group. The two groups did not score significantly differently on their recognition of the facial stimuli, indicating that the epileptic childrens’ difficulties were specific to recognising vocal expressions of emotion. In addition, there were no significant differences between the two group’s Full-Scale IQs (WASI/WPPSI-R) or Digit Span/Sentences age-scaled scores (WISC-III/WPPSI-R), indicating that the epilepsy group’s low prosodic scores could not be attributed to differences in intellectual abilities, ability to concentrate or auditory-verbal short-term memory. Total Prosody score significantly, positively correlated with age, IQ and Digit Span/Sentences scores, supporting the validity of the prosody test. Significant Kuder-Richardson and spilt-half coefficients and a significant correlation between the two group’s mean scores for each prosody test item supported the reliability of the test. The findings suggest that children with rolandic epilepsy may have difficulties comprehending emotional prosody. Such difficulties may cause interpersonal and social skills deficits, and potentially long-lasting psychological problems. Possible interventions are discussed.