Very long-term memory in people with temporal lobe epilepsy

Abstract

Memory has been extensively studied in epilepsy. There are numerous accounts of memory impairments being found, particularly for people with temporal lobe epilepsy. Many discrepancies are, however, also evident. The first paper outlines the literature on memory problems in epilepsy. It focuses on the impairments reported in people with temporal lobe epilepsy in neuropsychological studies and cognitive neuroscience research and reviews the evidence concerning the presence and type of memory difficulties. Attention is then turned to the role of other factors in contributing to these difficulties, including epilepsy-related variables and psychological factors. The main conclusion drawn is that studies have not adequately acknowledged the possible role of these other factors when exploring memory impairments which presents a major methodological problem and more constrained studies are required to allow an understanding of the deficits experienced.

The second paper describes a study which investigated the presence of remote memory loss in people with temporal lobe epilepsy. A mild remote memory impairment was found for people with left temporal lobe epilepsy for both episodic autobiographical memory and semantic memory for public events. Support was given to the view that more sensitive tests of remote memory are required which allow the detection of subtle differences in performance. The need for future research with improved methodologies is discussed along with the potential clinical implications of such research.

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