Abstracts

List learning has generally been less useful for the localization of temporal lobe seizures than has story recall. It has been hypothesized that executive functions may play a role in the learning, recall, and recognition of word lists. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which list learning and executive functioning measures are correlated. A total of 161 subjects took part in the study. Of these, 74 subjects were left temporal lobe epileptics, 55 were right temporal lobe epileptics, and 32 subjects had bi-temporal onset or could not be lateralized by EEG. The word list learning measure used in this study was the CVLT. The variables used from the CVLT were the z-scores of the number of words recalled on Trials 1, 5, and 1-5 total, short delay free and cued recall, long delayed free and cued recall, number of hits and false positives on recognition testing, number of perseverations, semantic clustering, and serial clustering. Executive functioning measures consisted of the Trail Making Testing B, lexical fluency (CFL), and measures from the Wisconsin Card Sort Test, including total responses, total correct, total errors, perseverative responses, perseverative errors, and the number of categories completed. Overall, in the entire sample only Trails B reached statistical and practical significance its relationship with Trials 1, 5, and total 1-5, short delay free recall, short delay cued recall, and long delay free recall. None of the other measures correlated significantly and substantially. When subjects were divided into long delay free recall greater or less than -2, the only correlation of significance was between Trails B and total 1-5, for each group. When left temporal onset patients were examined, only Trails B correlated with trials 1, 5, and 1-5 total, and long delay free recall. For right temporal patients, Trails B correlated with Trials 1-5, short delay free and cued, and long delay free and cued recall. Also, for these subjects a number of WCST measures correlated with these variables. In general, word list learning is not related to executive functioning in temporal lobe epilepsy. This conclusion may be tempered somewhat in right temporal lobe patients, in which the relationship deserves further study.