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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: suncica.lah@sydney.edu.au
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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 

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