Abstracts

Rationale: Bilingualism has been shown to confer certain advantages on memory and executive function tasks in healthy individuals, compared to monolinguals. Given that epilepsy is commonly associated with these cognitive deficits,¹ it is important to investigate whether bilingualism may have a protective effect on executive function and memory performance in these individuals. This study hypothesized that bilingualism in individuals with epilepsy would be associated with improved performance on these targeted cognitive functions. Methods: A retroactive review of 33 children with epilepsy who had completed a comprehensive neurocognitive evaluation was conducted. All children were proficient in English, with 13 children bilingual. At the time of the evaluation children were between 6.4 and 18.25 years of age (M = 13.35 years; SD = 3.2). Most children (53%) were on multiple AEDs, with one subject on no AED. There were no significant differences between groups in age, gender, IQ, or age of diagnosis. SES, (using the Barratt Simplified Measure of Social Status), was significantly different between the two groups. Tests of memory included list learning, list learning delay, and the Rey Complex Figure Test and Recognition Trial (RCFT). We also targeted the following components of executive function: 1) Working Memory (WISC/WAIS Working Memory Index), 2) Verbal Fluency, 3)Response inhibition (Color-Word Interference), and 4) psychomotor speed (Trail Making Test). Between group differences were analyzed using ANCOVA's controlling for SES. Results: Bilingual children demonstrated better performances on list learning than did monolingual children (F (1, 30) = 3.89, p < .05), but no differences were found between the groups for delayed recall. For visual memory, bilingual children performed better on delayed recall but not recognition tasks (F (1, 22) = 5.8, p < .05[J1] ). Bilingual children also performed significantly better on Category Verbal Fluency (F (1, 27) = 4.76, p < .05) and response inhibition (Color Word Interference, (F (1, 20) = 6.6, p < .05) and Inhibition (F (1, 19) = 5.57, p <05)). There were no significant differences on psychomotor speed and working memory. Conclusions: Results of this study suggest that bilingualism confers benefits to memory and executive functioning in children with epilepsy. Specifically, greater performance in list learning suggests benefits to verbal encoding, potentially due to the recruitment of different brain regions on verbal memory tasks². Further, components of executive function including verbal fluency and response inhibition were selectively augmented in bilingual compared to monolingual children with epilepsy, while psychomotor speed and working memory were not impacted. ¹Parrish J, Geary E, Jones J, Seth R, Hermann B, & Seidenberg M. Executive functioning in childhood epilepsy: parent-report and cognitive assessment. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2007; 49:412-6. ²Kim K, Byun E, Lee S, Gaillard W, Xu B, Theodore W. Verbal working memory of Korean-English bilinguals: An fMRI study. Journal Of Neurolinguistics. 2011; 24:1-13.