[Neuropsychological assessment in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy]. / Avaliação neuropsicológica em portadores de epilepsia do lobo temporal.

We investigated the patient cognition with temporal lobe epilepsy that presented or no mesial injury in magnetic resonance exam. We used classics and ecological neuropsychological tests to indicate possible functional alterations, and to compare results between ecological and traditional instruments. Thirty-four people match in age and study year were separate in three groups: 12 patients with mesial injury; 12 without injury and 10 health people. We used for functional evaluation: Wechsler adult intelligence and memory scales subtests, verbal fluency and Rivermead behavior memory test. The patients with injuries presented low cognitive performance when compared with control groups in various tasks: attentional span, memory, speech, daily problems resolution, while the patients without injury showed more compensated with mild attentional alterations. Both traditional memory tests and ecological memory tests were efficient to describe the cognitive profile of patients with epilepsy.

Avaliação neuropsicológica em portadores de epilepsia do lobo temporal / Neuropsychological assessment in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy

Investigamos a cognição de pacientes com epilepsia de lobo temporal que apresentavam ou não lesão mesial segundo exame de ressonância magnética. Utilizamos testes neuropsicológicos clássicos e ecológicos com objetivo de identificar possíveis alterações funcionais, e comparar resultados entre instrumentos tradicionais e ecológicos. Trinta e quatro pessoas pareadas em idade e escolaridade foram separadas em três grupos: 12 pacientes com lesão mesial; 12 sem lesão e 10 pessoas saudáveis. Para a avaliação funcional utilizamos: subtestes da escala de inteligência para adultos e de memória de Wechsler; fluência verbal, e o teste comportamental de memória de Rivermead. Os pacientes com lesão apresentaram desempenho cognitivo rebaixado em relação aos controles em diversas atividades: span atencional, memória, linguagem, resolução de problemas do cotidiano, enquanto os pacientes sem lesão mostraram-se mais compensados, apenas com alterações atencionais sutis. Tanto os testes tradicionais de memória, quanto os ecológicos foram eficientes para descrever o perfil cognitivo de pacientes com epilepsia.

We investigated the patient cognition with temporal lobe epilepsy that presented or no mesial injury in magnetic resonance exam. We used classics and ecological neuropsychological tests to indicate possible functional alterations, and to compare results between ecological and traditional instruments. Thirty-four people match in age and study year were separate in three groups: 12 patients with mesial injury; 12 without injury and 10 health people. We used for functional evaluation: Wechsler adult intelligence and memory scales subtests, verbal fluency and Rivermead behavior memory test. The patients with injuries presented low cognitive performance when compared with control groups in various tasks: attentional span, memory, speech, daily problems resolution, while the patients without injury showed more compensated with mild attentional alterations. Both traditional memory tests and ecological memory tests were efficient to describe the cognitive profile of patients with epilepsy.

Semantic relations and repetition of items enhance the free recall of words by multiple sclerosis patients.

We compared 25 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and 24 normal controls on a test of free recall of words. Some lists contained words that were all unrelated, while in others the intermediary words were semantically related. In another set, the mid-list words were repeated across the lists, or, in addition to the repetition, were semantically associated. Immediate recall was assessed using these lists. Delayed recall was assessed using different lists (delay-unrelated and delay-related) after distractor tasks. Recency was not affected in MS patients, but the primacy effect was lower than in controls, this effect being interpreted as due to a deficiency in articulatory rehearsal. The delay interval after each list abolished recency in both groups and resulted in impaired recall in MS patients. However the patients, like the controls, benefited from semantic relations in the middle of the lists and from spaced repetition of words across the lists, in either immediate and delayed recall. The enhancing effects of word relatedness and of spaced repetition are seen as being due to automatic processes preserved in MS patients.

Cognitive profile of patients with relapsing remitting multiple slcerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a common disease in Western countries of temperate/cold climate, but in tropical countries an increasing number of cases have been diagnosticated Moved by the lack of information about cognitive dysfunction of Brazilian MS patients, the present study attempted to describe features of neuropsychological alterations in patients with relapsing remiting MS living in the city of São Paulo. They were compared to healthy volunteers, matched for age and education. In the absence of global intellectual deterioration, the patients had a deficit: a) in learning and verbal long-term memory tasks and in visual long-term memory of complex figure; b) in timed tasks, accounted for by a slowness of mental processes; c) in tasks with a motor component. Tendency to depression was observed; anxiety levels were normal.