Hippocampal Volume and Working Memory Deficits in Generalized Epilepsy Compared to Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
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Subject Area
Psychology
Description
Sarah Bica ’22
Majors: Psychology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Victoria Templer, Psychology
Previous research suggests that temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), a type of focal epilepsy, is associated with smaller hippocampal (HPC) volume and lower working memory (WM) performance compared to control groups (Postma et al., 2017). Other research found that generalized tonic-clonic seizures (sGTCS) induced by TLE is associated with smaller HPC volume than non-sGTCS (Chen et al., 2019). However, a longitudinal study comparing HPC volume and WM performance between TLE and generalized tonic-clonic epilepsy (GTCE) has yet been done. This study recruited 75 participants at the age of fifteen who had diagnoses of TLE, GTCE, or no epileptic condition. Participants’ HPC volume was recorded using MRI. All participants were then assessed by the Working Memory Test Battery (Ma et al., 2017) using the visuospatial sketchpad subtest and the phonological loop subtest to record visual and verbal WM. Participant’s HPC volume and WM test performance was measured again at the age of thirty to analyze the long-term effects of their epileptic condition compared to the control group. Expected results for HPC volume show a decrease for both epileptic groups compared to the control. GTCE is expected to have smaller HPC volume than TLE at age of thirty. WM is also expected to decline in both epileptic conditions for both visual and verbal subtasks. However, GTCE is expected to show lower WM scores at age 30 as compared to TLE at age 30. GTCE is expected to display greater long-term effects on WM and HPC volume. These results are important because they provide insight for possible treatments for epileptic patients who suffer from WM deficits.
Publisher
Providence College
Type
Presentation
Date
Spring 4-29-2021
Start Date
4-29-2021 12:00 AM
Format
Video
.mp4
Language
English
