Auditory/verbal and visual/spatial memory in children with complex partial epilepsy of temporal lobe origin.

Two groups of epileptic children and a normal control group were administered a Comprehensive Children's Memory Scale (Experimental Edition) which is presently being developed by this author. The first experimental group consisted of 12 children having complex partial seizures of left temporal origin and the second group consisted of 12 children having partial complex seizures of right temporal lobe origin based upon clinical description and EEG/neuroimaging verification. Results indicated: (a) Children with left temporal lobe epilepsy demonstrated significantly lower performance than controls on auditory/verbal memory testing. (b) Children with right temporal lobe epilepsy demonstrated significantly lower performance than controls on visual/spatial memory testing. (c) For the most part, the right and left temporal lobe groups did not significantly differ from each other. However, their performance was in the expected direction; i.e., children with left temporal lobe epilepsy scored lower than right temporal lobe epileptics on auditory/verbal memory testing, and children with right temporal lobe epilepsy scored lower than left temporal lobe epileptics on visual/spatial memory testing.