Sex Differences in Frontal-Executive Functioning Among Presurgical Temporal Lobe Epilepsy Patients
Abstract number :
3.077
Submission category :
11. Behavior/Neuropsychology/Language / 11A. Adult
Year :
2025
Submission ID :
413
Source :
www.aesnet.org
Presentation date :
12/8/2025 12:00:00 AM
Published date :
Authors :
Presenting Author: Jason Soble, PhD – University of Illinois at Chicago
Alice Pozzato, MD – Universita' degli studi di Bologna
Barbara Mostacci, MD, PhD – IRCCS Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna, Full Member of the ERN EpiCARE
Jeffrey loeb, MD PhD – University of Illinois at Chicago
Julia Bodnya, MD – University of Illinois at Chicago
Huan Huynh, MD – University of Illinois at Chicago
Francesco Pucci, MD – University of Illinois at Chicago
Francesca Bisulli, MD – Department of Biomedical and NeuroMotor Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
Anna Serafini, MD – University of Illinois at Chicago
Rationale: Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) often impairs cognition, with left TLE typically affecting verbal memory and language, and right TLE associated with visuospatial and nonverbal learning deficits. These patterns reflect the functional specialization of the temporal lobes, though broader domains such as attention and executive function can also be impacted due to the involvement of larger neural networks. Although presurgical neuropsychological evaluations are standard in TLE, sex differences in cognitive outcomes remain underexplored. In the general population, women often outperform men in verbal tasks, while men tend to show advantages in visuospatial reasoning. When examined in presurgical epilepsy patients, sex has shown relevance, including greater risk of postoperative language decline in females. Most prior studies are primarily focused on cognitive domains linked to temporal lobe function; in contrast, our study aimed to explore sex-based differences in frontal-executive functioning among presurgical TLE patients while also comparing performance on tests of material-specific verbal and nonverbal memory.
Methods: Data from 50 patients with TLE evenly split between males (n=26) and females (n=24) were examined. Females were, on average, 8 years older than males (F=6.03, p< .05), but sex groups otherwise matched by demographics, epilepsy onset/duration, daily ASMs, and seizure types/frequency. Frontal-executive neuropsychological outcome tests were Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (ROCFT), Matrix Reasoning (MR), Trail making Test-B (TMT-B), and Verbal Fluency (VF), and memory outcome tests were the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) and Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised (BVMT-R).
Behavior