Cerebrally lateralized epileptogenic foci and performance on a verbal and visual-graphic learning task

A set of verbal and visual-graphic learning tasks sensitive to differential cerebral hemisphere impairment was administered to 50 patients with epileptogenic focus localized in either the left or right cerebral hemisphere. Patients with left-hemisphere seizure-foci and those with generalized seizures performed the verbal task significantly more poorly than did patients with right-hemisphere epileptogenic foci. In contrast, there were no significant differences between groups on the non-verbal tasks. Results are discussed in light of findings in the literature relating cognitive dysfunction to epilepsy and with regard to the possible contribution of such dysfunction to patients' complaints.