Behavioral markers for self- and other-attribution of memory: a study in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy and healthy volunteers

Objectives: The correlation between clinical measures of memory and subject ively reported memory is often poor. Regarding this we investigated in pati ents with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) whether there is evidence that perso ns mistake other cognitive performances for memory due to subjective memory theories. Methods: a neuropsychological test battery comprising measures o f attention, verbal/figural memory and other visual or language related fun ctions was applied in patients with left (L-TLE, n = 24) or right temporal lobe epilepsy (R-TLE, n = 21) and healthy volunteers (n = 20). In addition, subjective self- and other-reported memories were assessed by the subjecti ve memory questionnaire (SMQ). Results: subjective measures as well as obje ctive measures indicate significant cognitive impairment in TLE and in L-TL E in particular. Self-reports and other-reports are interrelated but only s elf-reported memory correlates significantly with objective memory performa nce. Regression analysis indicates that self-reported memory is best predic ted by word fluency followed by verbal memory and vocabulary, and other-rep orted memory is best predicted by word fluency, vocabulary, confrontation n aming, and verbal recognition memory. Discussion: the results suggest that attribution of memory refers to a subjective view of memory which is wider than its neuropsychological definition. It furthermore differs dependent on the observer's point of view. Memory is preferentially concluded from verb al behaviors. These reflect language skills and access to vocabulary rather than declarative memory. Consideration of subjective memory theories and a ssociated attribution processes can significantly contribute to our underst anding of the often-poor relationship between objective test results and su bjective impairment in TLE. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reser ved.