A neurologist reports in a medical journal that a woman got epileptic seizures by hearing the voice of Mary Hart, a host of the syndicated television program "Entertainment Tonight."

Symptoms included an upset stomach, a sense of pressure in her head and mental confusion, said Dr. Venkat Ramani, who reports the case in today's issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

"It was very dramatic," said Dr. Ramani, who said he studied the seizures when the woman heard Ms. Hart's voice in a laboratory test. The doctor said she would rub her stomach, hold her head "and then she would look confused and far away, the expression in her eyes, she looked like she was far away and out of it."

The test confirmed that Ms. Hart's voice set off the abnormal electrical discharges in the brain that mark an epileptic seizure, said Dr. Ramani, a professor of neurology at the Albany Medical College.

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In an interview, he said he did not know why Ms. Hart's voice touched off the seizures, which lasted 30 seconds to a minute or two. "I don't think it's psychological," he said. "Primarily it's a neurological, or brain-related event."

The unidentified woman had thought Ms. Hart's voice set off her seizures, but "even her own family members were skeptical," Dr. Ramani said. With the laboratory confirmation, "she was very relieved," he said.