Differential diagnosis between epileptic seizures and psychogenic nonepileptic seizures based on semiology

Psychogenic nonepileptic seizures present as paroxysmal symptoms and signs mimicking epileptic seizures.The gold standard test is the synchronous recording by video,electrocardiogram and electroencephalogram.However,video electroencephalogram is not available at many centers and not entirely independent of semiology.Recent studies have focused on semiological characteristics distinguishing these two circumstances.Clinical signs and symptoms provide important clues when making differential diagnosis.The purpose of this review is to help physicians differentiating psychogenic nonepileptic seizures better from epileptic seizures based on semiology,and improve care for those patients.

Ictal semiology,functional anatomy and multimodal diagnostic in patients with insular epilepsies

Background:The insula is a hidden part in the cerebral cortex.Insular epilepsy is underrecognized and it bears a special risk for misdiagnosis with regard to nonepileptic seizures or wrong localization of epileptic seizures.Case presentations:The manuscript describes 2 cases with ictal semiology of paresthesia and pain followed by hyperkinetic movements,noninvasive findings of source localization and/or invasive SEEG exploration.Conclusion:Magnetic source imaging,ictal SPECT as noninvasive and invasive recordings with depth electrodes(SEEG)can provide important preoperative information for the involvement of insular and periinsular regions in focal pharmacoresistant epilepsies.The optimal use of these methods presupposes extensive knowledge of ictal semiology and other clinical characteristics.The clinical localization hypothesis can be optimally proofed by SEEG exploration.

The Legacy and Future of Saussurean Semiology in the Study of Art and Visual Communication

The present study discusses how the emergence of semiology has outlined a new trajectory for visual and pictorial studies.First,we outline how Ferdinand de Saussure’s thoughts on the sign and its relation to visual communication has developed.Second,we interrogate its impact on art history,an already established science of visuality,throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.Third,we briefly discuss whether art history’s answer to reading Saussure is a denial or a positive affirmation of political responsibility shared by visual studies in general.The study highlights some of the most pertinent parts of the Saussurean legacy for the study of visual communication as a system,and some of the challenges and opportunities this legacy has created.

Semiology:A Comparative Science of Institutions

The Saussurian notion of semiology is closely linked to that of institution.In fact,in Saussure’s words,“systems of signs” are “social institutions”.Furthermore,language is conceived as a “special system” in relation to others “in the set of semiological facts”.Among different semiological systems,writing also occupies a special place.If there is a real difference between language and writing,we could look for it in the power of externalization,which confers to writing a sort of exemplarity among the other institutions.As we will see in this article,writing reveals the process of institutionalization itself,as well as the rational sociality of reasoning institutions and the irrational sociality of unreasoning institutions as languages.Semiology,which is the discipline studying these phenomena and their differences,can be considered as a comparative science of institutions.

The Semiotics of Photography： Towards Objective Hermeneutics

How can we know what a photograph means？ What messages or codes exist semiotically that help us to interpret it？ The mass consumption of images is reflected in the large number of contests, scholarships, galleries, museographic exhibitions and especially in advertising： What are the semiotic parameters that can be established for a reliable and clear judgment to discriminate one photo from another？ For critics or judges, artists or the general public, this article seeks to answer these questions by proposing a semiotic analysis based on new advances in science, in psychology of perception and neurobiology of vision; said methodology, currently being applied intensively at ESAV and used in the postgraduate studies of the present author, seeks to facilitate the understanding of the meaning--to improve the hermeneutics---ofthe photographic image in a systematic and objective way.

The “Hyperreality” Utopia: Analysis of the Landscape Architecture of Disneyland from a Semiotic Perspective

Modern society has become a society of the spectacle that centers on production and consumption of visual signs. The sign is no longer in its natural state but gets involved in the society of the spectacle with massive reproduction and representation. Literature review and semiotic principles were applied to summarize the landscape architecture of Disneyland. This study proposed the following three arguments by correlating Baudrillard's concept "hyperreality" with the landscape architecture of Disneyland: the disappearance of history in landscape architecture, simulacra reproduction in landscape architecture and the consumerism tendency in landscape architecture. The analysis of Disneyland's landscape architecture from a semiotic perspective will be a more profound examination of landscape architecture.

Sports Stars as a Means of Brand Communication in Cote d’Ivoire

The growing interest of Ivorian companies in sports celebrities has led us to conduct research on sports stars as a means of brand communication in C?te d’Ivoire.This work,based on a semiological reading,reveals several persuasive strategies used by advertisers to seduce consumers:The use of sports celebrities as spokespersons for brands and above all as promoters of products because of their youth,elegance,and notoriety.These promotions are most often made from the competition areas where they work.Due to the low literacy level of the population,we are witnessing the use of simple language,etc.

Ictal hypersalivation as a prominent symptom in a girl with insulo-opercular epilepsy

Introduction:Hypersalivation has been associated with Rolandic epilepsy and other childhood epilepsy syndromes.However,pure salivatory seizures are a rare type of focal seizure in which ictal hypersalivation is the dominant feature throughout the seizures.Case presentation:We present a case of pure salivatory seizures originating from the right post-central operculum cortex,confirmed by the favorable surgical outcome.We attempt to analyze the symptom from behavioral and neural network perspectives and propose a possible mechanism to generate ictal hypersalivation and pure salivatory seizures.Conclusion:Based on previous reports in the literature and our case,we emphasize the importance of the operculum in patients with ictal hypersalivation,particularly in patients with pure salivatory seizures.

Bilateral asymmetric tonic seizure in insuloopercular epilepsy:an anatomo-electroclinical study

Background:Insulo-opercular seizures are highly heterogeneous in seizure semiology and electrical features.Bilateral asymmetric limb posturing,as a classical pattern of supplementary sensorimotor area(SMA)seizure,also occurs in insulo-opercular epilepsy.This study was aimed to study the anatomo-electro-clinical correlations in bilateral asymmetric tonic seizures(BATS),in order to advance the understanding of insulo-opercular epilepsy.Methods:Eight patients with insulo-opercular epilepsy as confirmed by stereoelectroencephalography(SEEG)and manifesting BATS as the major ictal motor sign,in Guangdong Sanjiu Brain Hospital Epilepsy Center from 2014 to 2018,were employed in this study.The BATS of the patients were evaluated,and the semiologic features and concomitant intracerebral EEG changes were quantified.Then the variables were examined with Cluster Analysis,and the semiologic features were correlated with anatomic localization using the Kendall correlation test.Results:Of the 8 patients,the most frequent initial motor sign was bilateral asymmetric tonic posturing(62.5%).Facial tonic-clonic sign also had a high prevalence in the evolution of seizures(87.5%).The results of Cluster Analysis showed that the semiologic features were subdivided into two main groups,one group comprising exclusively BATS and the other including signs of focal tonic seizure,aura,focal limb tonic-clonic seizure(TCS),facial TCS,hypermotor behavior,eye movement,autonomic changes and generalized TCS.The BATS was strongly associated with the posterior long gyrus(PLG)of insula(t=0.732)and parietal operculum(t=1.000);the hypermotor behaviors were associated with the anterior long gyrus(ALG)(t=0.770);and the autonomic changes were associated with the anterior limiting sulcus(ALS)(t=0.734)and middle short gyrus(MSG)(t=0.700).Conclusions:The seizure semiology of insulo-opercular epilepsy is characterized,in temporal order,by BATS,with or without simultaneous hypermotor behaviors,and frequently ends up with facial tonic-clonic signs,which is different from that of the SMA seizure.The early spread network involving the posterior insular lobe and parietal operculum may contribute to this pattern of manifestation.

Linguistics Grappling with the “Oddness” of Signs

In the last two decades of his career,Saussure continually tried to clarify the status of signs,considering however that it was an “absurd task” attacking this “odd entity” consisting of the association of two heterogeneous species.In his Course II Saussure showed that the semiological character of this entity does not derive from the properties of the material used but from the differential relations that this entity has with other coexisting entities.Previously,in the notes of La double essence,he had demonstrated that the internal link on which signs are based is “of a highly peculiar kind”,that is to say,totally unnatural.In this paper,we show the very important theoretical and methodological implications of this reversal of perspective,which consists in posing the psychic associative union in its entirety.

Arbitrariness and Rationality

The arbitrariness of the linguistic sign is a key semiological concept.Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics presented it,particularly in the context of the opposition between absolute and relative arbitrariness,as an irrational principle.The paper is an attempt to answer the questions of how exactly the differentiation between absolute and relative arbitrariness in Saussurean semiology relates to the systemic nature of language,what constitutes the irrationality of arbitrariness,and what could be considered its rational counterpart.

Levi R.Bryant's Universe Perfused with Machines

The paper is a critical review of Levi R.Bryant's books Onto-Cartography:An Ontology of Machines and Media(2014) and The Democracy of Objects(2011) from the perspective of semiotics.It contrasts Charles S.Peirce's notions of semiosis and the agency of the sign with Bryant's speculative realism,according to which the universe of things as well as the biosphere of living beings are universes of machines.It also draws parallels between Saussure's 1916 postulate of semiology as a new science of the meaning of cultural objects and Bryant's postulate of a new science of the universe of things under the name of mechanology.