Download PDF
Journal of Pediatric Epilepsy 2017; 06(03): 141-148
DOI: 10.1055/s-0037-1604000
Original Article
Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York

Verbal and Nonverbal Memory in Hemispherectomy: Lateralization Effects

Rodney Wilson
1   Department of Psychology, Mississippi State University, Meridian, Mississippi, United States
,
Sarah Marion
2   Department of Psychology, Fuller Graduate School of Psychology, Pasadena, California, United States
,
Robert Asarnow
3   Department of Psychiatry, UCLA Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California, United States
,
Gary Mathern
4   Department of Neurosurgery, UCLA Brain Institute, Los Angeles, California, United States
› Author Affiliations
Further Information

Publication History

09 March 2017

16 May 2017

Publication Date:
28 June 2017 (online)

    Permissions and Reprints

Abstract

Hemispherectomy is a routine surgery performed for children with intractable seizures and often in the midst of a life-threatening emergency such as status epilepticus. As the following article will demonstrate, studies of neurocognitive outcome in general, and memory in specific, following hemispherectomy are mixed, although findings tend to indicate stronger lateralization of verbal memory. This is often demonstrated by loss of verbal memory following left hemispherectomy, although there are few studies focusing solely on hemispherectomy and neurocognitive outcome. We examined data from 25 patients who participated in the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery Program (right hemisphere = 7; left hemisphere = 18). The California Verbal Learning Test-Children's Version was used as a verbal memory correlate, and the doors visual recall was used as a correlate of nonverbal memory. Based on a review of the literature, we hypothesized that (1) verbal memory would be significantly different between hemispheres with higher scores in the remaining left hemisphere; (2) nonverbal memory would be significantly different between hemispheres with higher scores in the remaining right hemisphere. Exploratory analyses were also undertaken. Implications for lateralization, medical factors, and plasticity are discussed.

Keywords

hemispherectomy - verbal memory - nonverbal memory - surgical outcome - memory - neuropsychology
 

  • References

  • 1 Cukiert A, Cukiert CM, Argentoni M. , et al. Outcome after hemispherectomy in hemiplegic adult patients with refractory epilepsy associated with early middle cerebral artery infarcts. Epilepsia 2009; 50 (06) 1381-1384
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 2 Liégeois F, Cross JH, Polkey C, Harkness W, Vargha-Khadem F. Language after hemispherectomy in childhood: contributions from memory and intelligence. Neuropsychologia 2008; 46 (13) 3101-3107
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 3 Ogden JA. Language and memory functions after long recovery periods in left-hemispherectomized subjects. Neuropsychologia 1988; 26 (05) 645-659
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 4 Smith ML, Milner B. The role of the right hippocampus in the recall of spatial location. Neuropsychologia 1981; 19 (06) 781-793
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 5 Vining EP, Freeman JM, Pillas DJ. , et al. Why would you remove half a brain? The outcome of 58 children after hemispherectomy-the Johns Hopkins experience: 1968 to 1996. Pediatrics 1997; 100 (2 Pt 1): 163-171
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 6 Wechsler D. Manual for the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Revised. New York, NY: Psychological Corporation; 1981
    Google Scholar
  • 7 Vigliano P, Margary G, Bagnasco I, Jarre L. Cognitive evolution of a girl submitted to right hemispherotomy when five years old. Brain Dev 2010; 32 (07) 579-582
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 8 Ogden JA. Visuospatial and other “right-hemispheric” functions after long recovery periods in left-hemispherectomized subjects. Neuropsychologia 1989; 27 (06) 765-776
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 9 Wechsler D. A standardized memory scale for clinical use. J Psychol 1954; 19: 87-95
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 10 Osterrieth PA. Le test de copie d'une figure complex: Constribution a l'etude de la perception et de la memoire. Arch Psychol 1944; 30: 286-356
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 11 Benton AL. A visual retention test for clinical use. Arch Neurol Psychiatry 1945; 54: 212-216
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 12 Ptito A, Lassonde M, Lepore F, Ptito M. Visual discrimination in hemispherectomised patients. Neuropsychologica 1987; 25: 869-879
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 13 Saling MM. Verbal memory in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy: beyond material specificity. Brain 2009; 132 (Pt 3): 570-582
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 14 Farrell MA, DeRosa MJ, Curran JG. , et al. Neuropathologic findings in cortical resections (including hemispherectomies) performed for the treatment of intractable childhood epilepsy. Acta Neuropathol 1992; 83 (03) 246-259
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 15 Koh S, Nguyen S, Asarnow RF. , et al. Five or more acute postoperative seizures predict hospital course and long-term seizure control after hemispherectomy. Epilepsia 2004; 45 (05) 527-533
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 16 Delis DC, Kramer JH, Kaplan E, Ober BA. California Verbal Learning Test-Children's Version (CVLT-C). San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation; 1994
    Google Scholar
  • 17 Williams J, Phillips T, Griebel ML. , et al. Patterns of memory performance in children with controlled epilepsy on the CVLT-C. Child Neuropsychol 2001; 7 (01) 15-20
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 18 Baddeley AD, Emslei H, Nimmo-Smith I. Door and People: A Test of Visual and Verbal Recall and Recognition. Bury St. Edmunds, England: Thames Valley Test Company; 1994
    Google Scholar
  • 19 Morris RG, Abrahams S, Baddeley AD, Polkey CE. Doors and People: Visual and verbal memory after unilateral temporal lobectomy. Neuropsychology 1995; 4: 464-469
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 20 Manns JR, Squire LR. Impaired recognition memory on the Doors and People Test after damage limited to the hippocampal region. Hippocampus 1999; 9 (05) 495-499
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 21 Smith A, Sugar O. Development of above normal language and intelligence 21 years after left hemispherectomy. Neurology 1975; 25 (09) 813-818
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 22 Chiarello C, Burgess C, Richards L, Pollock A. Semantic and associative priming in the cerebral hemispheres: some words do, some words don't... sometimes, some places. Brain Lang 1990; 38 (01) 75-104
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 23 Chiarello C, Church KL. Lexical judgments after right- or left-hemisphere injury. Neuropsychologia 1986; 24 (05) 623-630
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 24 Chiarello C, Kacinik N, Manowitz B, Otto R, Leonard C. Cerebral asymmetries for language: evidence for structural-behavioral correlations. Neuropsychology 2004; 18 (02) 219-231
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 25 Barkas LJ, Henderson JL, Hamilton DA, Redhead ES, Gray WP. Selective temporal resections and spatial memory impairment: cue dependent lateralization effects. Behav Brain Res 2010; 208 (02) 535-544
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 26 Barr WB, Chelune GJ, Hermann BP. , et al. The use of figural reproduction tests as measures of nonverbal memory in epilepsy surgery candidates. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 1997; 3 (05) 435-443
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 27 Vaz SAM. Nonverbal memory functioning following right anterior temporal lobectomy: a meta-analytic review. Seizure 2004; 13 (07) 446-452
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 28 Gonzalez LM, Anderson VA, Wood SJ, Mitchell LA, Harvey AS. The localization and lateralization of memory deficits in children with temporal lobe epilepsy. Epilepsia 2007; 48 (01) 124-132
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 29 Zwaan RA, Yaxley RH. Lateralization of object-shape information in semantic processing. Cognition 2004; 94 (02) B35-B43
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 30 Mesulam MM. Large-scale neurocognitive networks and distributed processing for attention, language, and memory. Ann Neurol 1990; 28 (05) 597-613
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 31 Mesulam MM. From sensation to cognition. Brain 1998; 121 (Pt 6): 1013-1052
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 32 Carson BS, Javedan SP, Freeman JM. , et al. Hemispherectomy: a hemidecortication approach and review of 52 cases. J Neurosurg 1996; 84 (06) 903-911
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 33 Devlin AM, Cross JH, Harkness W. , et al. Clinical outcomes of hemispherectomy for epilepsy in childhood and adolescence. Brain 2003; 126 (Pt 3): 556-566
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 34 Kossoff EH, Vining EP, Pillas DJ. , et al. Hemispherectomy for intractable unihemispheric epilepsy etiology vs outcome. Neurology 2003; 61 (07) 887-890
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 35 Jonas R, Nguyen S, Hu B. , et al. Cerebral hemispherectomy: hospital course, seizure, developmental, language, and motor outcomes. Neurology 2004; 62 (10) 1712-1721
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar