title: Assessment of executive functioning in childhood epilepsy: the Tower of London and BRIEF.
abstract: Children and adolescents with epilepsy are known to demonstrate executive function dysfunction, including working memory deficits and planning deficits. Accordingly, assessing specific executive function skills is important when evaluating these individuals. The present investigation examined the utility of two measures of executive functions-the Tower of London and the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning (BRIEF)-in a pediatric epilepsy sample. Ninety clinically referred children and adolescents with seizures were included. Both the Tower of London and BRIEF identified executive dysfunction in these individuals, but only the Tower of London variables showed significant relations with epilepsy severity variables such as age of epilepsy onset, seizure frequency, number of antiepileptic medications, etc. Further, the Tower of London and BRIEF variables were uncorrelated. Results indicate that objective measures of executive function deficits are more closely related to epilepsy severity but may not predict observable deficits, as reported by parents. Comprehensive evaluation of such deficits, therefore, should include both objective measures as well as subjective ratings from caregivers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, New York University, New York, USA. William.macallister@nyumc.org
authors.forename: William S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: MacAllister
authors.forename: H Allison
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Bender
authors.forename: Lindsay
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Whitman
authors.forename: Antoinette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Welsh
authors.forename: Shari
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Keller
authors.forename: Yael
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Granader
authors.forename: Elisabeth M S
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Sherman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000523:psychology*; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires