Abstracts

RATIONALE: Memory difficulty is a common complaint among individuals with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). However, investigators have found no reliable relationship between subjective memory reports and performance on traditional memory measures. We hypothesized that conventional memory measures, which assess memory for [dsquote]impersonal[dsquote] information (e.g., word lists, designs), might not adequately assess the type of memory difficulty patients typically describe, which often involves poor memory for personal events (e.g., vacations). We attempted to determine whether performance on an autobiographical memory measure would better correlate with patients[scquote] memory complaints.
METHODS: Subjects were 22 TLE patients (10 left, 10 right, 2 bilateral) who were administered the Autobiographical Memory Interview (AMI), Logical Memory and Visual Reproduction subtests from the Wechsler Memory Scale (Revised or III), and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (Revised or III). Subjective memory ratings and overall quality of life ratings were obtained from the Epilepsy Surgery Inventory-55 (ESI-55). Pearson correlations and regression analysis were performed to assess the relationship among memory performances, subjective ratings, and Full Scale IQ (FSIQ).
RESULTS: Performances on both the AMI (r = -.51, p [lt] .02) and Logical Memory subtest (r = -.58, p [lt] .01) correlated significantly with subject memory ratings, however, these correlations were not in the predicted direction. Regression analysis revealed that FSIQ correlated significantly with subjective memory ratings. Thus, individuals with higher FSIQ scores performed better on both autobiographical and Logical Memory measures and reported greater memory problems compared to patients with lower FSIQ scores. There was no significant relationship between quality of life and subjective memory ratings.
CONCLUSIONS: Contrary to our hypothesis, subjective memory ratings did not correlate better with autobiographical memory performance compared to performance on conventional memory measures. Rather, lower subjective memory ratings were associated with higher scores on both conventional and autobiographical memory measures, and vice versa. Interestingly, FSIQ also showed a significant inverse correlation with subjective memory ratings. These results suggest that patients with higher levels of intelligence are more sensitive to small decrements in memory functioning, despite relatively strong performances on both conventional and autobiographical memory measures.
[Supported by: This project was supported by the Epilepsy Foundation through the generous support of the American Epilepsy Society.]