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Neurocognitive profiles in children with epilepsy

Claudia L Kernan1, Robert Asarnow, Prabha Siddarth

  • 1Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, UCLA, Los Angeles, California 90024, USA. ckernan@mednet.ucla.edu

Epilepsia
|November 7, 2012
PubMed

Insights

Children with epilepsy, particularly complex partial seizures (CPS), show distinct neurocognitive deficits in verbal memory and executive functioning compared to controls and childhood absence epilepsy (CAE). Neuropsychological screening is crucial for these children.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Neurology
  • Neuropsychology
  • Epileptology

Background:

  • Children with epilepsy often exhibit poorer academic and psychosocial outcomes than predicted by global intellectual functioning.
  • Specific neurocognitive deficits may underlie these discrepancies.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare neurocognitive profiles in children with two epilepsy types: localization-related epilepsy with complex partial seizures (CPS) and childhood absence epilepsy (CAE).
  • To determine if distinct cognitive deficits exist between CPS and CAE groups.

Main Methods:

  • Neuropsychological testing of 51 children with CPS, 31 with CAE, and 51 controls.
  • Assessment of verbal memory, visual memory, and executive functioning.
  • Comparison of cognitive performance across groups and within-group analysis of seizure-related factors.

Main Results:

  • Children with CPS exhibited mild generalized cognitive deficits compared to controls; CAE children did not.
  • Both epilepsy groups showed poorer verbal memory than controls, even after controlling for IQ.
  • While CPS patients performed worse on generalized cognitive functioning than CAE patients, specific memory and executive function domains did not differ between the epilepsy groups.

Conclusions:

  • Neurocognitive deficits are present in children with CPS and CAE, even with intact global intellectual functioning.
  • Highlights the necessity of routine neuropsychological screening for children diagnosed with CPS and CAE.
Abstract

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