Accelerated long-term forgetting in children with idiopathic generalized epilepsy.
OBJECTIVE
The rapid forgetting of information over long (but not short) delays (accelerated long-term forgetting [ALF]) has been associated with temporal lobe epilepsy but not idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE). Long-term memory formation (consolidation) is thought to demand an interaction between medial temporal and neocortical networks, which could be disrupted by epilepsy/seizures themselves. The present study investigates whether ALF is present in children with IGE and whether it relates to epilepsy severity.


METHODS
Sixty-one children (20 with IGE and 41 healthy controls [HC]) of comparable age, sex, and parental socioeconomic status completed neuropsychological tests, including a measure of verbal learning and recall after, short (30-min) and long (7-day) delays, and recognition. Epilepsy severity was rated by treating neurologists.


RESULTS
A two-way repeated measures analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) found a significant Group x Delay interaction; the children with IGE recalled (and recognized) significantly fewer words after a long, but not short (2- and 30-min) delay relative to the HC children. Moreover, greater epilepsy severity was associated with poorer recognition.


CONCLUSIONS
This study demonstrates, to our knowledge for the first time, that children with IGE present with ALF, which is related to epilepsy severity. These findings support the notion that epilepsy/seizures themselves may disrupt long-term memory consolidation, which interferes with day-to-day functioning of children with IGE.
School of Psychology, and ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Michael B
MB
Gascoigne
Belinda
B
Barton
Richard
R
Webster
Deepak
D
Gill
Jayne
J
Antony
Suncica Sunny
SS
Lah
D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D018450:Disease Progression; D004829:Epilepsy, Generalized / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D057567:Memory, Long-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014706:Verbal Learning