Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T09:49:20.596Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Autobiographical Memory in Children with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2013

Michael B. Gascoigne ,
Mary Lou Smith ,
Richard Webster ,
Belinda Barton ,
Deepak Gill  and
Suncica Lah
Michael B. Gascoigne
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Australia Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Cognition and Its Disorders, Sydney, Australia
Mary Lou Smith
Affiliation:
The University of Toronto and The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada
Richard Webster
Affiliation:
T.Y. Nelson Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, Australia
Belinda Barton
Affiliation:
Children's Hospital Education Research Institute, The Children's Hospital at Westmead and Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Sydney, Australia
Deepak Gill
Affiliation:
T.Y. Nelson Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, Australia
Suncica Lah*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Australia Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Cognition and Its Disorders, Sydney, Australia
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to: Suncica Sunny Lah, School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Autobiographical memory involves the recall of personal facts (semantic memory) and re-experiencing of specific personal events (episodic memory). Although impairments in autobiographical memory have been found in adults with unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and attributed to compromised hippocampal integrity, it is not yet known whether this occurs in children with TLE. In the current study, 21 children with TLE and 24 healthy controls of comparable age, sex, and socioeconomic status were administered the Children's Autobiographical Interview. Compared to controls, children with TLE recalled fewer episodic details, but only when no retrieval prompts were provided. There was no difference between the groups for semantic autobiographic details. Interestingly, the number of episodic details recalled increased significantly from 6 to 16 years of age in healthy control children, but not in children with TLE. Exploratory analyses revealed that, within the group of children with TLE, epilepsy factors, including presence or absence of structural hippocampal abnormalities, did not relate to the richness of episodic recall. Our results provide first evidence of autobiographical episodic memory deficits in children with TLE. (JINS, 2013, 19, 1–12)

Keywords

Episodic memoryLong-term memoryHippocampusSeizuresRemote memoryMemory disorder
Type
Symposia
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 19 , Issue 10 , November 2013 , pp. 1076 - 1086
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Addis, D.R., Moscovitch, M., McAndrews, M.P. (2007). Consequences of hippocampal damage across the autobiographical memory network in left temporal lobe epilepsy. Brain, 130(9), 2327–2342. doi:10.1093/brain/awm166CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barr, W., Goldberg, E., Wasserstein, J., Novelly, R. (1990). Retrograde amnesia following unilateral temporal lobectomy. Neuropsychologia, 28, 243–255. doi:10.1016/0028-3932(90)90018-JCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beardsworth, E., Zaidel, D. (1994). Memory for faces in epileptic children before and after brain surgery. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 16(4), 589–596. doi:10.1080/01688639408402670CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bell, B.D., Fine, J., Dow, C., Seidenberg, M., Hermann, B.P. (2005). Temporal lobe epilepsy and the selective reminding test: The conventional 30-minute delay suffices. Psychological Assessment, 17(1), 103–109. doi:10.1037/1040-3590.17.1.103CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blake, R., Wroe, S., Breen, E., McCarthy, R. (2000). Accelerated forgetting in patients with epilepsy: Evidence for an impairment in memory consolidation. Brain, 123, 472–483. doi:10.1093/brain/123.3.472CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cascino, G.D. (1992). Complex partial seizures. Clinical features and differential diagnosis. The Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 15(2), 373–382.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chiaravalloti, N.D., Tulsky, D.S., Glosser, G. (2004). Validation of the WMS-III Facial Memory Subtest with the graduate hospital facial memory test in a sample of right and left anterior temporal lobectomy patients. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 26(4), 484–497. doi:10.1080/13803390490496623CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, M. (1992). Auditory/verbal and visual/spatial memory in children with complex partial epilepsy of temporal lobe origin. Brain and Cognition, 20(2), 315–326. doi:10.1016/0278-2626(92)90024-GCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohen, M.J. (1997). Children's Memory Scale (CMS). San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar
Commission on Classification and Terminology of the International League Against Epilepsy. (1989). Proposal for revised classification of epilepsies and epileptic syndromes. Epilepsia, 30(4), 389–399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, J.M., Vargha-Khadem, F., Gadian, D.G., Maguire, E.A. (2011). The effect of hippocampal damage in children on recalling the past and imagining new experiences. Neuropsychologia, 49(7), 1843–1850. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.03.008CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dennis, M., Francis, D.J., Cirino, P.T., Schachar, R., Barnes, M.A., Fletcher, J.M. (2009). Why IQ is not a covariate in cognitive studies of neurodevelopmental disorders. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 15(03), 331–343. doi:10.1017/S1355617709090481CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frisk, V., Milner, B. (1990). The role of the left hippocampal region in the acquisition and retention of story content. Neuropsychologia, 28(4), 349–359. doi:10.1016/0028-3932(90)90061-RCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fritz, C.O., Morris, P.E., Richler, J.J. (2012). Effect size estimates: Current use, calculations, and interpretation. Journal of Experimental Psychology. General, 141(1), 2–18. doi:10.1037/a0024338CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fuerst, D., Shah, J., Shah, A., Watson, C. (2003). Hippocampal sclerosis is a progressive disorder: A longitudinal volumetric MRI study. Annals of Neurology, 53(3), 413–416. doi:10.1002/ana.10509CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gadian, D.G., Aicardi, J., Watkins, K.E., Porter, D.A., Mishkin, M., Vargha-Khadem, F. (2000). Developmental amnesia associated with early hypoxic–ischaemic injury. Brain, 123(3), 499–507. doi:10.1093/brain/123.3.499CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gardiner, J.M., Brandt, K.R., Vargha-Khadem, F., Baddeley, A., Mishkin, M. (2006). Effects of level of processing but not of task enactment on recognition memory in a case of developmental amnesia. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 23(6), 930–948. doi:10.1080/02643290600588442CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gascoigne, M.B., Barton, B., Webster, R., Gill, D., Antony, J., Lah, S.S. (2012). Accelerated long-term forgetting in children with idiopathic generalized epilepsy. Epilepsia, 53(12), 2135–2140. doi:10.1111/j.1528-1167.2012.03719.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ghetti, S., DeMaster, D.M., Yonelinas, A.P., Bunge, S.A. (2010). Developmental differences in medial temporal lobe function during memory encoding. The Journal of Neuroscience, 30(28), 9548–9556. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3500-09.2010CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gleissner, U., Sassen, R., Lendt, M., Clusmann, H., Elger, C.E., Helmstaedter, C. (2002). Pre- and postoperative verbal memory in pediatric patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. Epilepsy Research, 51(3), 287–296. doi:10.1016/S0920-1211(02)00158-4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gonzalez, L.M., Anderson, V.A., Wood, S.J., Mitchell, L.A., Harvey, A.S. (2007). The localization and lateralization of memory deficits in children with temporal lobe epilepsy. Epilepsia, 48(1), 124–132. doi:10.1111/j.1528-1167.2006.00907.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gonzalez, L.M., Mahdavi, N., Anderson, V.A., Harvey, A.S. (2012). Changes in memory function in children and young adults with temporal lobe epilepsy: A follow-up study. Epilepsy & Behavior, 23(3), 213–219. doi:10.1016/j.yebeh.2011.11.017CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hassabis, D., Maguire, E.A. (2007). Deconstructing episodic memory with construction. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11(7), 299–306. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2007.05.001CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Helmstaedter, C., Elger, C.E. (2009). Chronic temporal lobe epilepsy: A neurodevelopmental or progressively dementing disease? Brain, 132(10), 2822–2830. doi:10.1093/brain/awp182Google ScholarPubMed
Helmstaedter, C., Kockelmann, E. (2006). Cognitive outcomes in patients with chronic temporal lobe epilepsy. Epilepsia, 47(Suppl. 2), 96–98. doi:10.1111/j.1528-1167.2006.00702.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Herfurth, K., Kasper, B., Schwarz, M., Stefan, H., Pauli, E. (2010). Autobiographical memory in temporal lobe epilepsy: Role of hippocampal and temporal lateral structures. Epilepsy & Behavior, 19(3), 365–371. doi:10.1016/j.yebeh.2010.07.012CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hermann, B., Seidenberg, M., Schoenfeld, J., Davies, K. (1997). Neuropsychological characteristics of the syndrome of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy. Archives of Neurology, 54(4), 369–376. doi:10.1001/archneur.1997.00550160019010Google ScholarPubMed
Hermann, B.P., Wyler, A.R., Richey, E.T., Rea, J.M. (1987). Memory function and verbal learning ability in patients with complex partial seizures of temporal lobe origin. Epilepsia, 28(5), 547–554. doi:10.1111/j.1528-1157.1987.tb03687.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jones-Gotman, M. (1986). Right hippocampal excision impairs learning and recall of a list of abstract designs. Neuropsychologia, 24(5), 659–670. doi:10.1016/0028-3932(86)90005-9CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jones-Gotman, M., Zatorre, R.J., Olivier, A., Andermann, F., Cendes, F., Staunton, H., Wieser, H.G. (1997). Learning and retention of words and designs following excision from medial or lateral temporal-lobe structures. Neuropsychologia, 35(7), 963–973. doi:10.1016/S0028-3932(97)00024-9CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kwan, D., Carson, N., Addis, D.R., Rosenbaum, R.S. (2010). Deficits in past remembering extend to future imagining in a case of developmental amnesia. Neuropsychologia, 48(11), 3179–3186. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.06.011CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lah, S., Grayson, S., Lee, T., Miller, L. (2004). Memory for the past after temporal lobectomy: Impact of epilepsy and cognitive variables. Neuropsychologia, 42(12), 1666–1679. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2004.04.008CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lah, S., Lee, T., Grayson, S., Miller, L. (2006). Effects of temporal lobe epilepsy on retrograde memory. Epilepsia, 47, 615–625. doi:10.1111/j.1528-1167.2006.00476.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leeman, B.A., Macklin, E.A., Schomer, D.L., O'Connor, M.G. (2009). Transient news events test: Feasibility in assessment of post-temporal lobectomy remote memory deficits. Epilepsy & Behavior, 16(1), 113–119. doi:10.1016/j.yebeh.2009.06.012CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lendt, M., Gleissner, U., Helmstaedter, C., Sassen, R., Clusmann, H., Elger, C.E. (2002). Neuropsychological outcome in children after frontal lobe epilepsy surgery. Epilepsy & Behavior, 3(1), 51–59. doi:10.1006/ebeh.2001.0296CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Levine, B., Svoboda, E., Hay, J., Winocur, G., Moscovitch, M. (2002). Ageing and autobiographical memory: Dissociating episodic from semantic retrieval. Psychology and Ageing, 17, 677–689. doi:10.1037/0882–7974.17.4.677CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mabbott, D., Smith, M. (2003). Memory in children with temporal or extra-temporal excisions. Neuropsychologia, 41, 995–1007. doi:10.1016/S0028-3932(02)00318-4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Machin, D., Campbell, M., Fayers, P., Pinol, A. (1997). Sample size tables for clinical studies (2nd ed). Oxford: Blackwell Science.Google Scholar
Mameniskiene, R., Jatuzis, D., Kaubrys, G., Budrys, V. (2006). The decay of memory between delayed and long-term recall in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. Epilepsy & Behavior, 8(1), 278–288. doi:10.1016/j.yebeh.2005.11.003CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Muhlert, N., Grünewald, R.A., Hunkin, N.M., Reuber, M., Howell, S., Reynders, H., Isaac, C.L. (2011). Accelerated long-term forgetting in temporal lobe but not idiopathic generalised epilepsy. Neuropsychologia, 49(9), 2417–2426. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.04.018CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nadel, L., Moscovitch, M. (1997). Memory consolidation, retrograde amnesia and the hippocampal complex. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 7(2), 217–227. doi:10.1016/s0959-4388(97)80010-4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nolan, M.A., Redoblado, M.A., Lah, S., Sabaz, M., Lawson, J.A., Cunningham, A.M., Bye, A.M.E. (2004). Memory function in childhood epilepsy syndromes. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, 40(1-2), 20–27. doi:10.1111/j.1440-1754.2004.00284.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Noulhiane, M., Piolino, P., Hasboun, D., Clemenceau, S., Baulac, M., Samson, S. (2007). Autobiographical memory after temporal lobe resection: Neuropsychological and MRI volumetric findings. Brain, 130(12), 3184–3199. doi:10.1093/brain/awm258CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O'Connor, M., Morin, M., Verfaellie, M., Greenblatt, D., Doherty, R., Cahn, G., Schomer, D. (1999). Performance of temporal lobectomy patients on tests of remote memory. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 5, 117.Google Scholar
Picard, L., Cousin, S., Guillery-Girard, B., Eustache, F., Piolino, P. (2012). How do the different components of episodic memory develop? Role of executive functions and short-term feature-binding abilities. Child Development, 83(3), 1037–1050. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01736.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Picard, L., Reffuveille, I., Eustache, F., Piolino, P. (2009). Development of autonoetic autobiographical memory in school-age children: Genuine age effect or development of basic cognitive abilities? Consciousness and Cognition, 18(4), 864–876. doi:10.1016/j.concog.2009.07.008CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Piefke, M., Weiss, P.H., Zilles, K., Markowitsch, H.J., Fink, G.R. (2003). Differential remoteness and emotional tone modulate the neural correlates of autobiographical memory. Brain, 126(3), 650–668. doi:10.1093/brain/awg064CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pillon, B., Bazin, B., Deweer, B., Ehrlé, N., Baulac, M., Dubois, B. (1999). Specificity of memory deficits after right or left temporal lobectomy. Cortex, 35(4), 561–571. doi:10.1016/S0010-9452(08)70819-0CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Piolino, P., Desgranges, B., Hubert, V., Bernard, F.A., Matuszewski, V., Chételat, G., Eustache, F. (2008). Reliving lifelong episodic autobiographical memories via the hippocampus: A correlative resting PET study in healthy middle-aged subjects. Hippocampus, 18(5), 445–459. doi:10.1002/hipo.20406CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Piolino, P., Hisland, M., Ruffeveille, I., Matuszewski, V., Jambaqué, I., Eustache, F. (2007). Do school-age children remember or know the personal past? Consciousness and Cognition, 16(1), 84–101. doi:10.1016/j.concog.2005.09.010CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosenbaum, R.S., Carson, N., Abraham, N., Bowles, B., Kwan, D., Köhler, S., Richards, B. (2011). Impaired event memory and recollection in a case of developmental amnesia. Neurocase, 17(5), 394–409. doi:10.1080/13554794.2010.532138CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seidenberg, M., Hermann, B.P., Dohan, F.C. Jr., Wyler, A.R., Perrine, A., Schoenfeld, J. (1996). Hippocampal sclerosis and verbal encoding ability following anterior temporal lobectomy. Neuropsychologia, 34(7), 699–708. doi:10.1016/0028-3932(95)00146-8CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sheldon, S., McAndrews, M.P., Moscovitch, M. (2011). Episodic memory processes mediated by the medial temporal lobes contribute to open-ended problem solving. Neuropsychologia, 49(9), 2439–2447. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.04.021CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sheslow, D., Adams, W. (2003). Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning 2 (WRAML–2). Wilmington, DE: Wide Range, Inc.Google Scholar
Smith, M.L., Milner, B. (1989). Right hippocampal impairment in the recall of spatial location: Encoding deficit or rapid forgetting? Neuropsychologia, 27(1), 71–81. doi:10.1016/0028-3932(89)90091-2CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, M.L., Elliot, I.M., Lach, L. (2006). Memory outcome after pediatric epilepsy surgery: Objective and subjective perspectives. Child Neuropsychology, 12(3), 151–164. doi:10.1080/09297040591001076CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Speechley, K.N., Sang, X., Levin, S., Zou, G.Y., Eliasziw, M., Smith, M.L., Wiebe, S. (2008). Assessing severity of epilepsy in children: Preliminary evidence of validity and reliability of a single–item scale. Epilepsy & Behavior, 13(2), 337–342. doi:10.1016/j.yebeh.2008.05.001CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spencer, S.S., Spencer, D.D., Williamson, P.D., Mattson, R. (1990). Combined depth and subdural electrode investigation in uncontrolled epilepsy. Neurology, 40(1), 74. doi:10.1212/wnl.40.1.74CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spencer, S.S., Williamson, P.D., Spencer, D.D., Mattson, R.H. (1987). Human hippocampal seizure spread studied by depth and subdural recording: The hippocampal commissure. Epilepsia, 28(5), 479–489. doi:10.1111/j.1528-1157.1987.tb03676.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Squire, L., Cohen, N., Nadel, L. (1984). The medial temporal region and memory consolidation: A new hypothesis. In H. Weingartner & E. Parker (Eds.), Memory consolidation: Psychobiology of cognition (pp. 185–210). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Elbaum.Google Scholar
St-Laurent, M., Moscovitch, M., Levine, B., McAndrews, M.P. (2009). Determinants of autobiographical memory in patients with unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy or excisions. Neuropsychologia, 47(11), 2211–2221. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.01.032CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Steinvorth, S., Levine, B., Corkin, S. (2005). Medial temporal lobe structures are needed to re-experience remote autobiographical memories: Evidence from H.M. and W.R. Neuropsychologia, 43(4), 479–496. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2005.01.001CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tabachnick, B., Fidell, L. (1996). Using multivariate statistics (3rd ed, ). New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Tulving, E. (2002). Episodic memory: From mind to brain. Annual Review of Psychology, 53(1), 1–25. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.53.100901.135114CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Upton, D., Corcoran, R., Fowler, A., Thompson, P. (1992). Autobiographical memory in epilepsy. Seizure, 1, 14.Google Scholar
Vargha-Khadem, F., Gadian, D.G., Watkins, K.E., Connelly, A., Van Paesschen, W., Mishkin, M. (1997). Differential effects of early hippocampal pathology on episodic and semantic memory. Science, 277(5324), 376–380. doi:10.1126/science.277.5324.376CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vargha-Khadem, F., Salmond, C.H., Watkins, K.E., Friston, K.J., Gadian, D.G., Mishkin, M. (2003). Developmental amnesia: Effect of age at injury. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 100(17), 10055–10060. doi:10.1073/pnas.1233756100CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Viskontas, I.V., McAndrews, M.P., Moscovitch, M. (2000). Remote episodic memory deficits in patients with unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy and excisions. Journal of Neuroscience, 20(15), 5853–5857.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Voltzenlogel, V., Despres, O., Vignal, J.-P., Kehrli, P., Manning, L. (2007). One-year postoperative autobiographical memory following unilateral temporal lobectomy for control of intractable epilepsy. Epilepsia, 48(3), 605–608. doi:10.1111/j.1528-1167.2006.00970.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Voltzenlogel, V., Després, O., Vignal, J.-P., Steinhoff, B.J., Kehrli, P., Manning, L. (2006). Remote memory in temporal lobe epilepsy. Epilepsia, 47(8), 1329–1336. doi:10.1111/j.1528-1167.2006.00555.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wechsler, D. (1999). Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI). San Antonio, TX: Harcourt Assessment.Google Scholar
Willoughby, K.A., Desrocher, M., Levine, B., Rovet, J.F. (2012). Episodic and semantic autobiographical memory and everyday memory during late childhood and early adolescence. Frontiers in Psychology, 3, 53. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00053CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: File

Suncica Lah Supplementary Material

Table

Download Suncica Lah Supplementary Material(File)
File 122.4 KB
Supplementary material: File

Suncica Lah Supplementary Material

Table

Download Suncica Lah Supplementary Material(File)
File 63.1 KB