The hippocampal contribution to verbal fluency in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy.
We report the effects of hippocampal and non-hippocampal temporal-lobe dysfunction on verbal fluency performance. Quantitative aspects of semantic and phonemic fluency performance were examined in 46 patients with right- or left-temporal-lobe epilepsy and 20 healthy controls. A pattern of fewer words generated on semantic rather than phonemic fluency tasks was found among patients with damage to hippocampal structures. This pattern was not obtained in patients with non-hippocampal temporal-lobe damage, suggesting that the hippocampus plays a crucial role in semantic fluency performance. An interesting lateralization effect was obtained. Among patients with left temporal-lobe involvement, fluency performance was impaired regardless of whether the hippocampus was involved. In contrast, among patients with right temporal-lobe involvement, fluency performance was impaired only when the hippocampus was involved.
Gleissner
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University Hospital of Epileptology, Bonn, Germany. psych@mailer.meb.uni-bonn.de
Elger
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CE
D000328:Adult; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010700:Phonetics; D012660:Semantics; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000473:pathology; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*