School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.
Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia.
Epilepsia Open. 2024 Oct;9(5):1847-1856. doi: 10.1002/epi4.13022. Epub 2024 Aug 13.
Memory is one of the most sensitive markers of cognitive compromise in people with new-onset epilepsy. Nonetheless, around half of these cases score within the normal range on standard memory testing. Here we explore whether memory retention at a 1-week delay reveals otherwise undetected memory compromise in such individuals, and how it relates to subjective memory complaints and mood.
Using a prospective design, 38 adults with new-onset epilepsy underwent baseline memory screening via telephone using an abbreviated Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT). Psychological screening occurred via online questionnaires. One week later, without forewarning, participants completed three follow-up memory tasks. Of particular focus, we explored longer-term memory performances and forgetting trajectories in those individuals (n = 23) who demonstrated normal memory performances (scores >10th percentile) at baseline (30-min delay). Outcomes were compared to 32 healthy controls, matched for age, sex, and education.
As a group, people with epilepsy performed worse than controls on all memory measures, with 44 percent impaired at baseline testing. Of those unimpaired at baseline, the rate and volume of information loss over 1 week was significantly greater than for controls. Contextual memory performance at 1 week was also significantly poorer for people with epilepsy. At the individual level, the prevalence of impaired forgetting was not significantly different between patients and controls. Subjective memory complaints were not related to any objective tests but were strongly related to self-reported mood and anxiety symptoms.
People with new-onset epilepsy show reduced memory at short and extended intervals. For those showing normal memory at baseline, information does appear to be forgotten more quickly than in healthy controls, though the effect is not large. The findings indicate that while extended delay memory testing is not essential in all new epilepsy cases, it could provide useful information for particular individuals.
Memory problems are common in people with epilepsy shortly after seizure onset, however, many individuals still show normal memory performances on standard neuropsychological testing. Through testing memory at an extended timepoint (1 week), our study found that on average, these individuals showed a slightly quicker rate of forgetting over a 1-week period than people without a brain condition. Self-reported memory complaints in people with new epilepsy were unrelated to their actual memory skills on testing at short and long timepoints but were rather linked to lower mood and quality of life.
记忆是新发癫痫患者认知功能受损的最敏感标志物之一。尽管如此，仍有大约一半的新发癫痫患者在标准记忆测试中得分处于正常范围内。在这里，我们探讨了在 1 周的延迟后，记忆保留是否能揭示这些个体中未被发现的记忆缺陷，以及它与主观记忆主诉和情绪的关系。
采用前瞻性设计，38 名新发癫痫患者通过电话使用简化版 Rey 听觉言语学习测试（RAVLT）进行基线记忆筛查。心理筛查通过在线问卷进行。一周后，在没有预先警告的情况下，参与者完成了三项随访记忆任务。特别关注的是，我们探索了在基线（30 分钟延迟）表现正常（得分>第 10 百分位数）的 23 名个体中，记忆的长期记忆表现和遗忘轨迹。结果与 32 名年龄、性别和教育程度相匹配的健康对照进行了比较。
作为一个整体，癫痫患者在所有记忆测试中均表现不如对照组，基线测试中有 44%的人受损。在基线时未受损的患者中，1 周内信息丢失的速度和量明显大于对照组。1 周时的情境记忆表现也明显较差。在个体水平上，患者和对照组之间的遗忘受损的患病率没有显著差异。主观记忆主诉与任何客观测试均无关，但与自我报告的情绪和焦虑症状密切相关。
新发癫痫患者在短时间和长时间间隔内记忆能力下降。对于基线时记忆正常的患者，与健康对照组相比，信息似乎遗忘得更快，尽管这种影响不大。研究结果表明，虽然在所有新发癫痫病例中进行扩展延迟记忆测试并非必不可少，但它可能为特定个体提供有用的信息。
