temporal lobe epilepsy

SUMMARY Six patients with hypergraphia and epilepsy are presented and their clinical features compared with other patients reported in the literature. It is suggested that hypergraphia occurs more frequently in patients with right-sided non-dominant temporal lobe lesions, in contrast for example to the schizophreniform presentation of left-sided lesions. Other features of psychopathology possibly associated with non-dominant lesions, including elation, hyperreligiosity and dej"a vu experiences, are also discussed. The study of inter-ictal behaviour in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy has improved our under-standing of the different roles of the temporo-limbic structures in the dominant and non-dominant cere-bral hemispheres of the brain. It has been suggested that an ictal focus in the dominant temporal lobe is associated with aggressive behaviourl-3 and schizo-phrenia-like psychoses,3-10 although in the latter case only small samples have been used and other