Cerebrally lateralized epileptogenic foci and performance on a verbal and visual-graphic learning task.
A set of verbal and visual-graphic learning tasks sensitive to differential cerebral hemisphere impairment was administered to 50 patients with epileptogenic focus localized in either the left or right cerebral hemisphere. Patients with left-hemisphere seizure-foci and those with generalized seizures performed the verbal task significantly more poorly than did patients with right-hemisphere epileptogenic foci. In contrast, there were no significant differences between groups on the non-verbal tasks. Results are discussed in light of findings in the literature relating cognitive dysfunction to epilepsy and with regard to the possible contribution of such dysfunction to patients' complaints.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D004828:Epilepsies, Partial / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology