Face-Name Learning in Epilepsy Reveals Bilateral Temporal Lobe Involvement
Abstract number :
2.025
Submission category :
11. Behavior/Neuropsychology/Language / 11A. Adult
Year :
2025
Submission ID :
269
Source :
www.aesnet.org
Presentation date :
12/7/2025 12:00:00 AM
Published date :
Authors :
Presenting Author: Erica Chen, Undergraduate Student – Emory University School of Medicine
Daniel Drane, PhD – Emory University School of Medicine
Rationale: Memory assessment in epilepsy has traditionally focused on unimodal, material-specific test stimuli. However, there is increasing realization that complex binding of information across sensory domains is a vital human skill that has been neglected in clinical assessment. We evaluated presurgical patients who underwent epilepsy surgery (ES) evaluation on a multimodal associational learning test to determine the extent to which the temporal lobes (TLs) play a role in complex learning. We hypothesized that both TL regions would contribute uniquely to complex memory formation (e.g., right TL more impaired on face processing), that baseline performance across ES subgroups would be impaired compared to healthy control (HC) subjects, and that patients with bitemporal epilepsy would perform worst of all.
Methods: The Face-Name Associative Memory Exam (FNAME) is a computerized neuropsychological (NP) test that asks individuals to associate names and occupations with 12 novel faces across two learning trials. We administered the FNAME to 42 ES patients undergoing evaluation at Emory University and 19 HC subjects. All patients underwent long-term video-EEG monitoring, and seizure type and lateralization was based on EEG monitoring results, 3T MRI, PET scans, and NP testing. The current cohort has an approximately equal mix of patients with left, right, or bilateral seizure onset and two patients with generalized epilepsy, with no subgroup differences on relevant demographic variables. Performance on the FNAME was analyzed by using an ANOVA with post-hoc comparisons.
Results: All presurgical subgroups performed worse than HC subjects across the various metrics of the FNAME, with most scales showing significant differences. Both left and right-sided ES candidates performed significantly worse than HCs (p< .001)
Behavior