Frontal-like dysfunction in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy.

This study examines the performance on executive function -classically cons idered as purported by the frontal lobes- in patients with temporal robe ep ilepsy (TLE). Two groups of patients were evaluated. one consisted of 16 TL E patients and the other comprised 12 patients with primary generalised epi lepsy (PGE). The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) was used as a measure o f executive function. Results demonstrated that performance on the WCST was remarkably defective in the TLE group, showing a pattern suggestive of fro ntal like executive dysfunction in a 75% of the patients, against the 17% o f the PGE group (p < 0.001). Impairment was evident when number of categori es achieved (p < 0.05), perseverative errors (p < 0.001) and perseverative responses (p < 0.001) were considered. Clinical and theoretical significanc e of these findings may reflex the executive dysfunction of the mesial temp oral lobe region as part of the temporo-frontal circuit.