MEMORY AND INTELLIGENCE IN LATERALIZED TEMPORAL-LOBE EPILEPSY AND SCHIZOPHRENIA

Recent neuroimaging studies of patients with schizophrenia have sugges ted structural and functional abnormalities of mesial temporal lobe st ructures. We compared the intelligence and memory test performance of 70 patients with schizophrenia and 72 patients with focal, lateralized temporal lobe epilepsy (30 left, 42 right temporal lobe) in order to examine the adequacy of a temporal lobe model of schizophrenic cogniti ve deficits. The groups did not differ in age, education, or Full Scal e IQ. The right temporal lobe group had better overall memory performa nce than either the left temporal or schizophrenic patients. Unlike th e schizophrenic patients, the memory impairment of the left temporal g roup was most evident with verbal materials and was amplified by delay ed testing. Both epilepsy groups had better visual memory than the sch izophrenic group. The clear differences in performance pattern between groups suggests that lateralized temporal lobe dysfunction does not b y itself provide an adequate model of schizophrenic cognitive impairme nt.