THE EFFECT OF SEIZURES ON MEMORY FOR RECENTLY LEARNED MATERIAL

We gave 58 patients with refractory partial seizures who were undergoi ng video-EEG telemetry a variety of memory tests shortly after the tel emetry commenced, and we reassessed memory for this material 48 hours later. Thirty patients had one or more seizures during this period; 22 of these had complex partial seizures, secondary generalized seizures , or both. Eighteen patients did not have any seizures during the stud y period. Patients who had seizures forgot no more than patients who d id not have seizures. There was no correlation between memory performa nce and the timing of seizures or the number of seizures. These findin gs indicate that isolated seizures do not generally cause patients to forget material they have recently learned.