Abstracts

Rationale: Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that affects approximately one-percent of the population. Mixed reports suggest that individuals with right temporal lobe epilepsy (RTLE) exhibit material specific memory impairment in “visual” declarative memory tasks. However, other data suggests patients with left TLE (LTLE) also exhibit deficits in tasks thought to be primarily “visual.” This study compares the pre-surgical test performances between RTLE and LTLE patients on measures of “visual” memory, the Rey-Osterrieth Complex figure, Medical College of Georgia Complex Figures and Facial recognition task from the Wechsler Memory Scale – 3rd Edition along with several verbal memory tasks.Methods: The study included review of temporal lobe epilepsy patients completing a neuropsychological evaluation. Participants: Thirty patients were identified that met study inclusion and exclusion criteria. There were 12 left TLE and 18 right TLE patients. Variables/Measure(s). All participants completed comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations. Results: Neuropsychological data are presented. The mean age of the left TLE sample was 46 (SD= 9.98) and had 12.6 years of education. The mean age of the RTLE sample was 40 (SD= 12.4) and had 14.8 years of education. There was a significant difference in education and IQ between the RTLE and LTLE groups, and these were used as covariates in subsequent analyses. ANCOVA revealed participants with LTLE scored significantly below RTLE patients on measures of verbal memory. There were no significant differences between LTLE and RTLE patients on measures of “visual” memory; however, copy scores on the Rey-Osterrieth Complex figure were significantly worse for patients with LTLE. Conclusions: In this sample of patients with TLE, verbal memory test scores of patients with LTLE were significantly worse than patients with RTLE. Patients with RTLE did not demonstrate measurable material specific impairment in “visual” memory tasks as expected, but did not evidence impairment in “verbal” memory tasks as a group. Association with Intra-carotid Amytal (Wada’s) test results in determination of surgical candidacy will be discussed. (No funding required).