title: Intact information sampling in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Previous studies have reported deficits in decision making under ambiguity for patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE). It is unknown whether mTLE is also associated with alterations at a predecisional stage. This study aimed to gain insight into predecisional processing of patients with mTLE.
  
  
  METHODS
  We compared performance of patients with mTLE (n = 25) with that of healthy controls (n = 75) on the information sampling task (IST), a task assessing reflection-impulsivity and predecisional information sampling.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients and healthy controls showed a similar performance pattern in both conditions of the IST as indicated by the amount of information gathered, the degree of uncertainty tolerated, and the number of decision errors made. They both also demonstrated a significant sensitivity to the different reward characteristics of the task. For the patient group, we found no significant effects on performance on the IST of epilepsy lateralization, abnormality side, structural abnormality (hippocampus vs. amygdala), and medication (monotherapy vs. polytherapy).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Reflection processes and predecisional information sampling as tested by the IST are intact in mTLE. Patients collect as much information as healthy individuals and adapt their behavior according to the changing reward conditions. Our findings indicate that in well-defined risk situations, where memory demands are sufficiently minimized, patients with mTLE should be able to gather sufficient information, weight risks and benefits, and make advantageous decisions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zamarian
authors.affiliation: Clinical Department of Neurology.
authors.forename: Eugen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Trinka
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology.
authors.forename: Giorgi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kuchukhidze
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bodner
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology.
authors.forename: Iris
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Unterberger
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology.
authors.forename: Gerhard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Luef
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology.
authors.forename: Margarete
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Delazer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000679:Amygdala / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012201:Reward; D035501:Uncertainty