PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2009, Arts and Sciences : Psychology

The classic receptive (temporal lobe)/generative (frontal lobe) dissociation of language function may be inadequate in characterizing language function in epilepsy. The relative impact of temporal versus frontal lobe epileptogenic foci on language function is also unknown. Individuals with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE), have higher rates of psychopathology relative to the general and other chronically ill populations, as well as structural hippocampal abnormalities associated independently with the MTLE syndrome and the effects of high levels of emotional distress. Therefore, cognitive dysfunction may result from some combination of the intrinsic epileptogenic lesion or damage associated with chronic high levels of emotional distress, or both. The present study evaluted the diagnostic utility of the Boston Naming Test, phonemic paraphasic error production on the BNT, Controlled Oral Word Association Task, Animal Naming, and Token Test in terms of their ability to predict frontal lob epilepsy (FLE), left MTLE, or right MTLE focus, as well as the potentially moderating effects of perceived emotional distress. Seventy-seven individuals with MTLE (43 left and 34 right) and 30 individuals with FLE were included. Binary logistic regression models evaluated the predictive ability of each language measure to differentiate diagnostic group. Main effect and interaction terms for scales D and Pt on the MMPI-2 were added to each model to assess the possible moderating effects of perceived emotional distress. The results did not explicitly support a receptive/generative dichotomy, but rather a continuum of language function with some tasks more or less reliant on receptive and generative language components. Left MTLE and FLE patients performed equally poorly on all language measures, while right MTLE patient performance was largely unimpaired. Performance was moderated by perceived emotional distress; however, depression and anxiety were found to differentially modera (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Bruce Schefft PhD (Committee Chair); Steven Howe PhD (Committee Member); Michael Privitera MD (Committee Member); Christine Hovantiz PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology