Lopes Ana F D, Simões Mário M R, Robalo Conceiçao N, Fineza Isabel, Gonçalves Olavo B
Universidade da Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
Rev Neurol. 2010 Mar 1;50(5):265-72.
Attention and executive functions correspond to important areas of cognitive functioning associated with the frontal cortex. The study of attention and executive functions in children with epilepsy has focused on characterizing the group with frontal lobe epilepsy. Still, recent studies have identified deficits in these areas also in children with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE).
To investigate attention and executive functions in a group of children with TLE, also considering the influence of clinical variables (age at onset of epilepsy and evolution of seizures).
Attention and executive functions were studied in a group of 24 children with TLE, aged 7-15 years and compared with 24 control children of the same age and socio-cultural level. Subjects were assigned the following tasks: Cancellation Task, Trail Making Test, Tower of London and Phonemic Verbal Fluency.
The group with TLE performed significantly lower on selective, sustained and divided attention and on phonemic verbal fluency. In markers concerning commissions and omissions there were no differences between groups in any of the performed tests. A significant slowing of processing speed was reported. In addition, patients with earlier age at onset of epilepsy had more difficulties in sustained attention and planning abilities.
These results sustain the need for evaluating and monitoring the area of attention, executive functions and processing speed in children and adolescents with temporal lobe epilepsy, above all those with earlier age at onset of epilepsy.
注意力和执行功能是与额叶皮质相关的重要认知功能领域。癫痫患儿注意力和执行功能的研究主要集中在对额叶癫痫患儿群体的特征描述上。然而，最近的研究也发现颞叶癫痫（TLE）患儿在这些方面也存在缺陷。
研究一组颞叶癫痫患儿的注意力和执行功能，并考虑临床变量（癫痫发作起始年龄和发作演变）的影响。
对一组24名年龄在7至15岁的颞叶癫痫患儿进行注意力和执行功能研究，并与24名年龄和社会文化水平相同的对照儿童进行比较。受试者被分配了以下任务：删字测验、连线测验、伦敦塔测验和语音流畅性测验。
颞叶癫痫组在选择性、持续性和分散性注意力以及语音流畅性方面的表现明显较低。在涉及错误和遗漏的指标方面，两组在任何一项测试中均无差异。报告称处理速度明显减慢。此外，癫痫发作起始年龄较小的患者在持续性注意力和计划能力方面存在更多困难。
这些结果支持对颞叶癫痫儿童和青少年的注意力、执行功能和处理速度领域进行评估和监测的必要性，尤其是那些癫痫发作起始年龄较小的患者。
