NEURAL ORGANIZATION OF MATERIAL-SPECIFIC MEMORY FUNCTIONS IN TEMPORAL-LOBE EPILEPSY PATIENTS AS ASSESSED BY THE INTRACAROTID AMOBARBITAL TEST

Lateralization of material-specific memory processing was evaluated in 105 epilepsy patients undergoing the intracarotid amobarbital test (I AT) prior to temporal lobectomy (TL). Left hemisphere (LH) language do minant patients demonstrated LH specialization for long-term verbal re cognition memory and right hemisphere specialization for visuospatial recognition memory. The pattern of hemispheric memory specialization w as similar for LH language dominant patients with brain injuries befor e 2 years of age and those without history of early brain injury, sugg esting that the apparent sparing of memory post-TL in early brain inju ry patients reflects reorganization of memory functions within the epi leptic hemisphere. Non-LH-language dominant patients showed no lateral specialization for either verbal or visuospatial memory processing, s uggesting that in these individuals reorganization of memory functions between hemispheres accompanies the lateral shift in language represe ntation.