Subjective Memory Evaluation before and after Temporal Lobe Epilepsy Surgery

Abstract

Subjective memory (SM), a self-evaluation of memory, in contrast to objective memory (OM) measured by neuropsychological testing, is less well studied in patients with epilepsy. We assessed SM before and after temporal lobectomy. The Frequency of Forgetting 10 scale (FOF-10), developed to evaluate SM in dementia, was given before and one year after temporal lobectomy. Reliability and validity for use in epilepsy were first assessed. Measures of depression (CES-D) and neuroticism (PANAS) were done before and after surgery as well as complete neuropsychological assessment of OM. Correlation analysis between FOF-10 results and all the other variables was implemented. In 48 patients the FOF-10 was reliable and valid showing high internal consistency in all items (Cronbach's alpha >0.82) and high reproducibility (p<0.01). The FOF-10 also correlated with the memory assessment clinics self rating scale (MAC-S) (p<0.01). FOF-10 scores improved or were unchanged postoperatively in 28 patients (58%) and worsened in 20 (42%). The FOF-10 did not significantly correlate with memory scores from neuropsychological testing but did correlate with perceived word finding difficulty (p<0.001) and postoperative depression (p<0.05). A reduction in number of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) after surgery distinguished those with improved postoperative SM. No correlation was found between SM and neuroticism, side of surgery or number of seizures. The FOF-10 is a brief and reliable measure of subjective memory in patients with epilepsy. Perceived memory impairment reflects more emotional state, language problems and quantity of AEDs than actual defects in memory function. These results would potentially be useful in presurgical counselling and management of memory issues after temporal lobe surgery.

The Neurobiology of Agrammatic Sentence Comprehension: A Lesion Study

“…But because of the rarity of natural ATL lesions (Holland & Lambon Ralph, 2010), the lobectomy population is worth investigating. Lexical deficits have been reported in this group (Huang, Hayman-Abello, Hayman-Abello, Derry, & McLachlan, 2014; Glosser & Donofrio, 2001), but to our knowledge, the agrammatic pattern of sentence comprehension has not been yet explicitly tested in lobectomy patients. Kho et al (2008) report that 16 left lobectomy patients as a group (both pre- and postsurgery) did not perform significantly differently than controls on both active and passive sentences in a sentence–picture matching task.…”

Subjective memory measures: metamemory questionnaires currently in use

“…Two more recently developed questionnaires, the Subjective Memory Complaints Questionnaire (SMCQ) and the Memory Complaints Scale (MCS) were specifically targeted to assessing memory complaints (Vale et al, 2012;Youn et al, 2009). These questionnaires have been used to examine memory complaints in patient groups, the relationship between complaints and objective measures, and for screening for mild cognitive impairment (Dalpubel et al, 2019;Huang et al, 2014;Yim et al, 2017).…”

The ERP correlate of episodic recollection is a neurocognitive determinant of subjective memory complaints: Implications on their predictive validity.

“…Therefore, we tested whether SMCs reliably predict performance in the VLMT since this test is thought to also capture hippocampally dependent memory processes. SMCs were acquired using the Memory Assessment Clinics Self-Rating Scale (MAC-S; Crook & Larrabee, 1990), a questionnaire commonly used for evaluating SMCs (Huang et al, 2014; Polczyk et al, 2004; Woods & Kneebone, 2016). The questionnaire measures self-ratings of memory abilities and frequency of memory problems.…”