1. [Executive cognitive alteration of prefrontal type in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy].
- Author
-
Drake M, Allegri RF, and Thomson A
- Subjects
- Adult, Analysis of Variance, Female, Humans, Intelligence Tests, Male, Neuropsychological Tests, Cognition Disorders physiopathology, Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe physiopathology, Prefrontal Cortex physiopathology
- Abstract
This study examines the performance on executive function--classically considered as purported by the frontal lobes--in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Two groups of patients were evaluated: one consisted of 16 TLE patients and the other comprised 12 patients with primary generalised epilepsy (PGE). The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) was used as a measure of executive function. Results demonstrated that performance on the WCST was remarkably defective in the TLE group, showing a pattern suggestive of frontal like executive dysfunction in a 75% of the patients, against the 17% of the PGE group (p < 0.001). Impairment was evident when number of categories achieved (p < 0.05), perseverative errors (p < 0.001) and perseverative responses (p < 0.001) were considered. Clinical and theoretical significance of these findings may reflex the executive dysfunction of the mesial temporal lobe region as part of the temporo-frontal circuit.
- Published
- 2000