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 18 healty controls were investigated with a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment. Results. The performance of children with TLE was significantly worse across language, verbal short term memory and semantic tests, compared with the controls. Verbal and non-verbal recall was also impaired. A supplementary investigation of recognition memory showed a selective impairment in topographical memory. 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 memory and more general language disorders. These data suggest that in TLE patients there is a more general dysfunction of the medial temporal left functions.