Frontal-lobe epilepsy (FLE), temporal-lobe epilepsy (TLE), and
matched-control subjects were administered the Trail Making Test (TMT) of
the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS; Delis et al., 2001), which assesses set-shifting on a
visuomotor sequencing task. Results indicated that patients with FLE were
impaired in both speed and accuracy on the switching condition relative to
patients with TLE and controls. The two patient groups did not differ from
controls on the four baseline conditions of the test, which assess visual
scanning, motor speed, number sequencing, and letter sequencing. In
addition, seizure-related variables (i.e., age of seizure onset, duration
of epilepsy, and seizure frequency) failed to correlate with set-shifting
performance in patients with FLE. These results suggest that patients with
FLE can be reliably distinguished from those with TLE and control subjects
on set-shifting as measured by the DKEFS TMT. (JINS, 2005,
11, 477–481.)
