Comparison of cognitive ability, personality profile, and school success in epileptic children with pure right versus left temporal lobe EEG foci.

By reviewing electroencephalographic reports compiled over five years and checking clinical details, we identified and studied 27 children with apparently pure left or pure right temporal lobe epilepsy. The children underwent neurological examination and neuropsychological testing (Halstead-Reitan Battery, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children [WISC] and Wide Range Achievement Test), and parents completed the Personality Inventory for Children (PIC). Of 15 boys and 12 girls with a mean age of 12.7 years, 14 had right and 13 left temporal lobe epilepsy. Seizure control was excellent in 17. Five (2 with left, 3 with right temporal lobe epilepsy) had received professional emotional help, 6 (3 with left, 3 with right focus) received special help at school, and 5 (3 with left, 2 with right focus) had failed a grade in school. No significant left-right differences were seen in WISC full scale, verbal, or performance IQ scores, neuropsychological test battery findings, or clinical scale scores on the PIC. Most of the children with unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy had no measurable cognitive or emotional difficulties. Cognitive, personality, and school problems were equally distributed between left and right temporal lobe epilepsy groups. When the two groups were combined, however, 10 patients (5 with left, 5 with right focus) were identified by the PIC as maladjusted, and as a group showed significantly lower neuropsychological test functioning than did the normally adjusted children.