Olejnik Agnieszka, Bala Aleksandra, Rejner Weronika, Gottman-Narożna Antonina, Rysz Andrzej, Kopytek-Beuzen Maja, Naumczyk Patrycja, Kunert Przemysław
Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
Department of Neurosurgery, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2025 Aug 14;19:1554091. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2025.1554091. eCollection 2025.
Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) is a common neurological disorder, with memory impairment being one of its typical symptoms. Most previous studies have focused on assessing declarative memory directly related to hippocampal functions, but emerging data suggest a decline in the efficiency of other types of memory as well. The aim of this study was to comprehensively assess various types of memory and analyze the relationship between memory performance and the volume of selected gray matter structures.
In total, 21 patients with left-MTLE and 28 age- and education-matched healthy individuals underwent neuropsychological assessment using the Wechsler Memory Scale IV (WMS-IV) to evaluate memory functioning. Magnetic resonance imaging was also conducted to assess gray matter volume and structure in all participants.
Compared with healthy controls, patients with left-MTLE showed significantly reduced performance in short-term verbal and visual memory, long-term verbal and visual memory, and working memory. Volumetric analysis revealed differences in gray matter volume between groups, with some structures being smaller and others larger in the patient group. Numerous correlations were found between WMS-IV scores and the volume of specific brain regions. Significant associations were observed both ipsilateral and contralateral to the epileptic focus, involving regions such as the cerebellar cortex, cingulate gyrus, insula, thalamus, and pallidum.
This study expands our understanding of the memory profile in patients with MTLE. Neuropsychological testing showed that patients performed worse than controls across all assessed memory domains. Additionally, the study identified a distinct pattern of neuronal abnormalities and brain-behavior correlations. These findings suggest that the extent of structural brain anomalies may be linked to the severity of memory impairment in MTLE, underscoring the complex relationship between neuroanatomy and cognitive function in this population.
内侧颞叶癫痫（MTLE）是一种常见的神经系统疾病，记忆障碍是其典型症状之一。以往大多数研究主要集中在评估与海马功能直接相关的陈述性记忆，但新出现的数据表明其他类型的记忆效率也有所下降。本研究的目的是全面评估各种类型的记忆，并分析记忆表现与选定灰质结构体积之间的关系。
共有21例左侧MTLE患者和28例年龄及教育程度匹配的健康个体接受了使用韦氏记忆量表第四版（WMS-IV）的神经心理学评估，以评估记忆功能。还对所有参与者进行了磁共振成像，以评估灰质体积和结构。
与健康对照组相比，左侧MTLE患者在短期言语和视觉记忆、长期言语和视觉记忆以及工作记忆方面的表现显著降低。体积分析显示两组之间灰质体积存在差异，患者组中一些结构较小，而另一些结构较大。在WMS-IV评分与特定脑区体积之间发现了许多相关性。在癫痫灶同侧和对侧均观察到显著关联，涉及小脑皮质、扣带回、岛叶、丘脑和苍白球等区域。
本研究扩展了我们对MTLE患者记忆特征的理解。神经心理学测试表明，患者在所有评估的记忆领域中的表现均比对照组差。此外，该研究确定了一种独特的神经元异常模式和脑-行为相关性。这些发现表明，脑结构异常的程度可能与MTLE患者记忆障碍的严重程度相关，强调了该人群神经解剖学与认知功能之间的复杂关系。
