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Word‐finding difficulties confound performance on verbal cognitive measures in adults with intractable left temporal lobe epilepsy
Author(s) -
Busch Robyn M.,
Chapin Jessica S.,
Haut Jennifer S.,
Dulay Mario F.,
Naugle Richard I.,
Najm Imad
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
epilepsia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.687
H-Index - 191
eISSN - 1528-1167
pISSN - 0013-9580
DOI - 10.1111/epi.12088
Subject(s) - verbal memory , psychology , temporal lobe , cognition , audiology , verbal learning , boston naming test , neuropsychology , nonverbal communication , effects of sleep deprivation on cognitive performance , epilepsy , verbal reasoning , california verbal learning test , developmental psychology , psychiatry , medicine
Summary This study sought to determine if word‐finding difficulties ( WFD s), which are common in adults with dominant temporal lobe epilepsy ( TLE ), are related to performance on verbal cognitive measures, including memory. One hundred six individuals with left TLE and pathologically confirmed mesial temporal sclerosis completed comprehensive preoperative neuropsychological evaluations. Patients were divided into two groups based on the degree of benefit received from phonemic cueing on a confrontation naming task. Cognitive performance was then compared between patients with greater and fewer WFD s. Patients with greater WFD s demonstrated poorer performance on many verbal cognitive measures compared to those with fewer WFD s. In contrast, there were no significant differences between groups on any of the nonverbal cognitive measures. Chi‐square analyses indicated that below average verbal memory performance occurred at a significantly higher rate for patients with greater WFD s (42–46%) as compared to patients with fewer WFD s (18–24%). Results showed that WFD s confound performance on verbal cognitive measures in adult patients with left TLE , particularly on measures with high demands for lexical retrieval. This suggests that when patients have word‐retrieval difficulties, measures of verbal memory and verbal intelligence may be underestimated and potentially lead to misinterpretation of test performance and misinformation regarding risk of declines after surgical resection.