VISUAL LEARNING ON A SELECTIVE REMINDING PROCEDURE AND DELAYED RECALLIN PATIENTS WITH TEMPORAL-LOBE EPILEPSY

We administered a visual selective reminding procedure for the learnin g of designs to healthy controls and to left or right temporal lobe ep ilepsy (TLE) patients without demonstrable brain lesions. In compariso n with the other groups, right TLE patients showed a deficit of learni ng characterized by an impairment in storing visual material and consi stently retrieving it from long-term memory. Patients with left TLE pe rformed similarly to controls. These data are consistent with the hypo thesis of right hippocampal involvement in the learning of nonverbal m aterial. Delayed retrieval of learned material was similar in all the subject groups tested at long time intervals, suggesting the impairmen t of learning in patients with right TLE does not necessarily imply a subsequent deficit in the retrieval of stored information. This findin g may agree with the opinion that distinct functional systems subserve learning and memory.