title: Interictal discourse production in temporal lobe epilepsy.
abstract: Discourse production was investigated in 16 patients with left-temporal-lobe epilepsy (LTLE) and 17 neurologically normal relatives. Narrative was elicited with the Joanette and Goulet (1989) eight frame "Cowboy" cartoon on three immediately consecutive occasions. Variables of interest were fluency (words/s), speaking time, and word count. While controls produced increasingly concise forms of the story over repetitions, the TLE group became more verbose. Fluency did not not differentiate the groups. These findings suggest that LTLE is associated with macrolinguistic disturbances. The role of capacity limitations and motivational factors in TLE discourse production is discussed.
authors.affiliation: School of Behavioural Science, The University of Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Field
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Saling
authors.forename: S F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Berkovic
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D014825:Vocabulary