Disturbi cognitivi nell'epilessia del lobo temporale in età evolutiva

Objectives. To describe the impact of childhood temporal lobe epilepsy(TLE) on cognitive functions.Material and methods. Nine patients with TLE aged 11-17 years and 18healty controls were investigated with a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment.Results. The performance of children with TLE was significantly worseacross language, verbal short term memory and semantic tests, compared withthe controls. Verbal and non-verbal recall was also impaired. A supplementaryinvestigation of recognition memory showed a selective impairment in topographicalmemory.Conclusions. In our patients, the episodic memory impairment is similar,although less severe, to that reported in developmental hippocampal amnesia.Nevertheless, in our patients there are also impairments in semantic memoryand more general language disorders. These data suggest that in TLE patientsthere is a more general dysfunction of the medial temporal left functions.