STUDIO DEI DISTURBI SUBCLINICI DEL LINGUAGGIO NELL'EPILESSIA TEMPORALE DIVERSAMENTE LATERALIZZATA

Several AA. have hypothesized a high incidence of 'schizophrenia-like psychosis' in patients with left temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). However, the mechanisms involved in these psychopatological manifestations have not yet been clarified. Recently, other Authors have suggested that some personality characteristics of patients with left TLE (humorlessness, viscosity) may be related to slight interictal language disorders due to the presence of a left temporal focus. Since this latter mechanism might also explain the disturbances of verbal thought described in patients with TLE associated with schizophrenia-like psychosis, patients with left TLE and right TLE were compared on language and verbal memory tasks. No difference between the two groups was found. So far, these results don't support the hypothesis of a higher incidence of subclinical language and verbal memory disorders in patients with left TLE.