title: Thought suppression predicts task switching deficits in patients with frontal lobe epilepsy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the relationship between task switching and thought suppression in connection with frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE).
  
  
  METHODS
  This experimental study included 30 patients with FLE admitted to the Services and Jinnah Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan between February and November 2013, and 30 healthy individuals from the local community. Participants performed a task switching experiment where they switched between emotion and age categorizations among faces. In addition, they completed a thought suppression questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 3 important results: (i) Patients with FLE showed weaker task switching abilities than healthy individuals. This result is attributed toward executive dysfunctions in patients with FLE. (ii) Contrary to the control group, patients with FLE showed larger switch cost for the age than the emotion categorization. This result can be seen in the context of social cognition deficits and poor inhibitory control in patients with FLE. In addition, larger switch costs reflected a binding effect with facial emotion as compared to age. The integration might represent emotion as an intrusive facial dimension that interrupted task switching performance. (iii) Patients with FLE had more recurrent suppression of thoughts than controls. Thought suppression was a significant predictor for switch costs. High scores on thought suppression were correlated with task switching deficits.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results suggest that thought suppression causes significant cognitive decline.
authors: Department of Applied Psychology, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Punjab, Pakistan. E-mail: amara_psychology@hotmail.com.
authors: Amara
authors: A
authors: Gul
authors: Hira
authors: H
authors: Ahmad
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D004644:Emotions; D017034:Epilepsy, Frontal Lobe / Q000523:psychology*; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D012938:Social Perception; D055815:Young Adult