Evidence of a specific vulnerability for deficient sequential cognitive information processing in epilepsy

The aim was to study sequential versus simultaneous cognitive information processing and their relation to acquired intellectual abilities in children with epilepsy. A total of 175 children with epilepsy (mean age 8.7 years; SD 2.9) were neuropsychologically examined on the basis of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC). To avoid confoundation with factors other than epilepsy, patients with underlying metabolic disorders or patients who were incapable of neuropsychologic testing because of severe mental retardation were excluded. We found significantly reduced cognitive processing, especially in sequential information processing compared with simultaneous information processing (mean score 85.9 versus 91.0). This selective impairment in sequential cognitive processing turned out to be a good statistical predictor for acquired abilities in the group of idiopathic epilepsy (beta = 0.53; P < .01), indicating a specific epileptic neuropsychologic association. Our findings provide evidence of a specific vulnerability for deficient sequential information processing presumably impairing academic achievement in childhood epilepsy.