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Remote Memory in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

Summary:  Purpose: The present study aims at characterizing remote memory in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE); it also considers the impact of its most important variables (lateralization of the lesion, duration of epilepsy, age at onset, and seizure frequency) on remote memory.

One-Year Postoperative Autobiographical Memory Following Unilateral Temporal Lobectomy for Control of Intractable Epilepsy

Summary:  Purpose: To examine the effects of temporal lobectomy (TL), particularly concerning its lateralization.

Déficit sélectif de la mémoire des faits publics associé à un oubli accéléré chez un patient atteint d’épilepsie du lobe temporal gauche

Resume Introduction La memoire du passe, contrairement a la memoire anterograde, rarement ete examinee dans l’epilepsie du lobe temporal et jamais avant et apres traitement chirurgical. Par ailleurs, les etudes de cas rapportant un deficit de la memoire des faits publics avec une preservation de la memoire autobiographique sont tres rares. Methodes Nous presentons le cas d’un patient atteint d’une epilepsie temporale pharmacoresistante en rapport avec une sclerose hippocampique gauche. Des examens neuropsychologiques complets ont ete realises avant et apres lobectomie temporale, avec un interet particulier pour la memoire du passe, evaluee exhaustivement au moyen de tests standardises, mais egalement d’epreuves adaptees au patient. Resultats Le patient presentait une memoire preservee pour les faits et episodes autobiographiques, mais des scores deficients aux tests de faits publics, dans un contexte de capacites cognitives generales normales. De plus, un oubli accelere pour du materiel verbal et non verbal etait mis en evidence. Conclusion Les resultats suggerent que le trouble de consolidation a long terme pourrait avoir contribue au deficit de la memoire des faits publics. Nous discutons les caracteristiques specifiques du traitement des faits publics en essayant d’expliquer sa plus grande vulnerabilite par rapport a la memoire autobiographique, dans le cas de l’oubli accelere.

The influence of seizure frequency on anterograde and remote memory in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy

PURPOSE Seizure frequency, although considered as an important factor in memory impairment in mesial temporal epilepsy (mTLE), is mostly confounded with other clinical variables, making it unclear to what extent recurrent seizures actually interfere with memory. The present study focuses on the influence of seizure frequency, studied as a main variable, on anterograde and remote memory. METHODS Seventy-one patients with unilateral mTLE were divided into two subgroups, as a function of their seizure frequency (monthly versus weekly seizures). Other seizure-related variables were controlled, namely, lateralisation and type of lesion, age at onset, years of ongoing seizures, etiologic factors, and number of AED. A comprehensive neuropsychological examination, including anterograde memory (verbal and non verbal recognition memory and free recall) tasks together with a large range of tests exploring different domains of remote memory, was carried out. RESULTS Despite similar results on IQ, executive functions and attention, the low seizure-frequency group performed significantly better than the high seizure-frequency group on anterograde memory tests. Loss of autobiographical episodes and public-events memory, concomitant with spared personal semantic knowledge, was observed in both patient groups compared with healthy subjects. A worsening effect of high seizure frequency was recorded for autobiographical incidents and news-events memory, but unexpectedly, not for memory for famous people. CONCLUSION The study of seizure frequency as the main variable leads us to suggest that high seizure frequency, itself, potentiates the effects of mesial temporal lobe damage on episodic memory deficits.

Preserved anterograde and remote memory in drug-responsive temporal lobe epileptic patients

PURPOSE To investigate cognition, particularly anterograde and remote memory, in patients suffering from unilateral drug-responsive mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE) patients and to compare their performance with that observed in drug-resistant mTLE patients. METHODS Sixteen drug-responsive mTLE patients, with only infrequent seizures in their lifetime, were matched for demographic and clinical variables to 18 patients suffering from drug-resistant unilateral mTLE. A comprehensive neuropsychological examination, including baseline, anterograde memory tasks, and a large range of remote memory tests was carried out. RESULTS Patients with drug-responsive epilepsy obtained average scores on every anterograde memory test. Although in general, they obtained lower scores than the healthy controls on remote memory tests, the differences failed to reach significance. Moreover, the drug-responsive group performed significantly better than the drug-resistant group on anterograde recall tests and an episodic autobiographical memory test. Performance was not significantly different between the patient groups in personal semantics or memory for public events. CONCLUSION Our results show that a mild clinical course of mTLE with no cognitive deficits can occur notwithstanding hippocampal sclerosis. The differences in cognitive function between the two groups are likely due to distinct pathophysiology of the underlying cause of epilepsy. Drug-resistant seizures and cognitive deficits may be the consequence of a more severe underlying cerebral process. Better understanding of the variety of pathogenesis of mTLE could help to answer this open question.

Autobiographical Memory Impairment in Female Victims of Intimate Partner Violence

Although the health consequences of intimate partner violence (IPV) have been amply described, as of yet, no study has focused on autobiographical memory (AM), despite the fact that AM dysfunction has been shown to have an impact on everyday life. We assessed AM using a cue-word task in 25 female victims of IPV and 22 control women who had never been exposed to a traumatic event. The IPV group also completed measures of psychotraumatic symptoms. AM was impaired in the IPV victims. When the effect of cue-word valence was analyzed, decreased AM specificity was observed with negative cue-words. This exploratory study demonstrates AM dysfunction among female victims of IPV for the first time. The pattern is consistent with the AM impairment observed in victims of traumatic events.

Étude sur la théorie de l’esprit chez des patients atteints d’ataxie spino-cérébelleuse génétique

Introduction: Le cervelet est surtout connu pour ses fonctions motrices. Or, des etudes recentes ont montre que les patients atteints de pathologies cerebelleuses presentent egalement des deficits de cognition sociale. Objectifs (1): Evaluer la theorie de l’esprit chez des patients atteints d’ataxie spino-cerebelleuse (ASC). (2) Mettre en lien la severite et la duree de maladie avec les performances de cognition sociale. Patients et methodes: Treize patients atteints d’ASC apparies en termes d’âge, de niveau scolaire et de genre a un echantillon de sujets sains. La theorie de l’esprit (capacite a attribuer des etats mentaux aux autres et a soi-meme) a ete testee par trois epreuves evaluant respectivement les capacites d’attribution d’intention a autrui, la reconnaissance d’emotions faciales et la comprehension de normes sociales. Les fonctions langagieres et la vitesse de traitement de l’information ont egalement ete evaluees. Resultats: Les patients obtiennent des performances significativement inferieures a celles des sujets controles aux epreuves de theorie de l’esprit. De plus, leurs performances aux epreuves de theorie de l’esprit sont correlees positivement entre elles, ainsi qu’avec celles obtenues dans le test evaluant la vitesse de traitement de l’information. Enfin, il ne semble pas exister de lien entre la duree et/ou la severite de la maladie et les performances aux epreuves neuropsychologiques.

Peritraumatic Assessment of Autobiographical Memory After Exposure to a Traumatic Event: Autobiographical Memory After Trauma Exposure

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is commonly acknowledged to be associated with reduced specificity of autobiographical memory (AM). However, very few studies have assessed AM in the peritraumatic phase. The aim of the present study was to examine whether the AM impairment reported in PTSD is present a few days after a traumatic event. We assessed AM in 41 participants who had recently been exposed to trauma, and 34 controls who had never experienced a traumatic situation. The trauma-exposed participants also completed the Impact of Event Scale-R (IES-R), the Inventory of Peritraumatic Distress, and the Peritraumatic Dissociative Experiences Questionnaire. Results showed that autobiographical memories cued by negative words were significantly less specific in the group of trauma-exposed participants than in the control group (p = .008; d = 0.40). Thus, mild AM impairment was already present three days after trauma exposure, long before acute PTSD set in.