Number processing in temporal lobe epilepsy.
BACKGROUND
Specific cognitive impairments have been found in association with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), such as deficits in declarative memory or verbal abilities. No attention has been paid so far to possible deficits in number processing.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate deficits in number processing in patients with TLE.


METHODS
Numerical abilities were assessed in 28 right handed patients with medically intractable unilateral TLE and in a control group.


RESULTS
No differences between patients and controls were found in analogue number processing with Arabic input, in a comparison task, or in simple addition and simple subtraction; however, there were significant group differences in tasks with verbal input, in simple division, in complex mental calculation, in a semantic knowledge task, and in conceptual tasks. Only minor differences were found between patients with right and left TLE.


CONCLUSIONS
While numerical deficits may be expected in patients with left sided TLE, it is open for discussion why patients with right sided TLE also show numerical deficits.
Delazer
M
M
Universitätsklinik für Neurologie, Innsbruck, Austria. margarete.delazer@uibk.ac.at
Gasperi
A
A
Bartha
L
L
Trinka
E
E
Benke
T
T
D000328:Adult; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D003210:Concept Formation; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008433:Mathematics; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011340:Problem Solving; D012660:Semantics; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D014705:Verbal Behavior