Long-term face memory as a measure of right temporal lobe function in TLE: the Alsterdorfer Faces Test

There is a shortage of neuropsychological tests to assess right temporal lobe memory function in TLE patients. Although right temporal lobe dominance for face memory is well established, neuropsychological studies on face memory in epilepsy surgery candidates have reported mixed results. These latter studies in TLE patients mostly concentrated on immediate face recognition. There is evidence suggesting that increasing test delays raise the sensitivity of neuropsychological face recognition tests to predict face memory decline after right temporal lobectomy. Long-term face recognition may also help in lateralizing right TLE in preoperative patients with little or no hippocampal sclerosis. In this context, we will introduce the Alsterdorfer Faces Test, a computerized long-term face memory test developed in the clinical context of an epilepsy center.