Head, Section of Neuropsychology
Department of Neurology & Epilepsy Center
Cleveland Clinic
Associate Professor of Neurology
Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of
Case Western Reserve University
Abstract:
Cognitive impairment is a major comorbidity of the epilepsies that often negatively impacts patient functioning and quality of life. Historically, epilepsy neuropsychological research has followed the classic paradigm, examining cognitive impairments in relation to core characteristics of the disorder (e.g., syndrome, etiology, seizure frequency/severity). However, substantial challenges to this paradigm have accumulated over the years, highlighting considerable patient heterogeneity in cognitive outcomes, even in seemingly homogenous epilepsy syndromes like mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). This talk will 1) highlight newly identified genetic and environmental contributors to cognitive dysfunction in TLE that account for some of the ‘missing variance’ in cognitive outcomes, 2) discuss methods for consolidating known cognitive risk factors to aid neuropsychologists in predicting cognitive outcomes following surgical intervention for the treatment of TLE, and 3) review current efforts to promote neuropsychological research in epilepsy at a global level to accelerate discovery and progress in this field.
