Executive Function in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy: Can markers of disease severity and psychological factors differentiate types of cognitive impairment?

There were two main aims of the current study. The first aim was to examine the effects of markers of disease severity on executive abilities in patients with TLE. Specifically, we were interested in building a model of disease severity that includes seizure duration, seizure frequency, and hippocampal sclerosis to determine whether each of these clinical variables uniquely contributes to performance on executive abilities in TLE. The second aim of the current study was to examine the effects of depression and sleepiness on executive abilities in patients with TLE. Although, the main goal of the current study is to examine executive abilities in patients with TLE, we included measures of processing speed to test whether the findings of previous research are specific to impairment in executive abilities, more diffuse cognitive imapirments, or both. Overall, our findings suggest that a hierarchical model of disease severity is not supported in this clinical population. However, these findings are not indicative that markers of disease severity do not have compounding effects on cognition, as this is an area that should be further explored. Age of onset was a significant marker associated with performance on processing speed and seizure frequency is the best predictor for executive abilities. These findings support that early onset of seizures and seizure frequency are primary markers of disease severity for predicting cognitive impairment in the patient with TLE.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Kansas

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Ivanisevic, Mirjana

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Watts, Amber
• Pearson, Caleb

• Cognition
• Depression
• Epilepsy
• Executive Function
• Seizures

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

https://www.proquest.com/LegacyDocView/DISSNUM/10688635

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/37173