Verbal emotional memory in children and adolescents with temporal lobe epilepsy: A first study

Isabelle Jambaqué (1, 2) , Charlotte Pinabiaux (1, 3, 2) , Célia Dubouch (3, 2) , Martine Fohlen (1) , Christine Bulteau (1, 2) , Olivier Delalande (1)

1 Service de Neurochirurgie Pediatrique
2 LPNCog / UMR 8189 - Laboratoire de Psychologie et Neurosciences Cognitives
3 Inserm U663 - Épilepsie de l'enfant et plasticité cérébrale

That emotional memory enhancement is compromised in adult patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), particularly in the case of early cerebral damage, has been suspected. We conducted a study in which we compared 20 children and adolescents aged 11–15 years with early TLE with 40 healthy control subjects. We studied the effect of emotional information on verbal memory performance using story recall and word list learning tasks. Our results highlighted the existence of emotional memory facilitation in healthy subjects, whereas there was no beneficial impact of emotional material on memory in young patients with TLE. Our study suggests that early TLE can impair the development of emotional memory processes.

Mots clés: Temporal lobe epilepsy; Children; Adolescents; Memory; Emotion

Domaines: Psychologie; Neurosciences; Pédiatrie

Isabelle Jambaqué, Charlotte Pinabiaux, Célia Dubouch, Martine Fohlen, Christine Bulteau, et al.. Verbal emotional memory in children and adolescents with temporal lobe epilepsy: A first study. Epilepsy & Behavior, 2009, 16 (1), pp.69 - 75. ⟨10.1016/j.yebeh.2009.07.006⟩. ⟨hal-01392532⟩