Abnormal self-location and vestibular vertigo in a patient with right frontal lobe epilepsy

Abstract

We describe the case of a 33-year-old man with complex partial seizures characterized by the feeling of being projected outside his body, including dissociation of "mind and self from body" (disembodiment), followed by vestibular vertigo due to right frontal lobe epilepsy caused by an oligodendroglioma. We distinguish the patient's ictal symptoms with respect to autoscopic phenomena (out-of-body experience, heautoscopy, autoscopic hallucinations) and vestibular phenomena of epileptic origin, and we discuss their neural origin with respect to vestibular and multisensory cortical mechanisms of bodily self-consciousness in temporoparietal and frontal cortex.