Abstract Purpose To extend previous research documenting the benefits of working memory (WM) intervention (Cogmed) immediately post-intervention in children with epilepsy by assessing the 3-month ...maintenance effects. Methods Participants involved in a previous randomized clinical trial (RCT) were invited to participate if they completed Cogmed within the last 3 months ( n = 15) and additional participants ( n = 13) were prospectively recruited. Standardized assessments of near-transfer effects (i.e., visual and auditory attention and WM) were completed prior to and immediately after intervention and at 3-month follow-up. An additional measure assessing the far-transfer effect of fluid reasoning was administered prior to intervention and at 3-month follow-up. Results Participants exhibited gains in auditory and visual attention and WM immediately following intervention and gains were generally sustained at 3-month follow-up. Intervention did not improve visual-verbal WM or fluid reasoning. The clinical variables studied (i.e., age of seizure onset, seizure frequency, epilepsy duration, and overall intellectual functioning) did not elucidate reliable relationships with intervention. Conclusions Working memory training is possibly efficacious in improving related skills which are maintained for 3 months in children with active epilepsy. No transfer to fluid reasoning was documented. Further investigation by means of a large-scale RCT which includes a placebo and both objective and subjective measures of the impact of training on daily functioning is warranted.
Summary
Objective
Limited research exists regarding the effectiveness of educational and psychological interventions for improving commonly presenting cognitive impairments experienced by children ...with epilepsy. We evaluated the efficacy of a commercially available, computerized, working memory (WM) program (Cogmed) using a well‐defined population of children with epilepsy.
Methods
In this controlled trial, 77 children with symptomatic epilepsy (ages 6.5–15.5 years; 100% taking medication) with estimated intellectual ability greater than the 2nd percentile were randomly assigned to an intervention (n = 42) or waitlist‐control (n = 35) group. Standardized assessments of attention and WM were administered pre‐ and posttraining or waitlist interval, 7 weeks apart.
Results
Without intervention, participants displayed significant weaknesses in intelligence, attention, and WM compared to normative samples. After controlling for preintervention scores and intelligence, we found that significant treatment effects for the intervention group were evident for visual attention span, auditory WM, and visual‐verbal WM. Intention‐to‐treat analyses (all participants) and sensitivity analyses (n = 37 and n = 21 for the intervention and waitlist‐control groups, respectively) were highly similar, providing confidence to the results. Effect sizes for significant outcomes were large (greater than or equal to two thirds of the standard deviation of the normative‐data). The clinical/demographic and functional factors studied did not elucidate who most benefits from training.
Significance
This is the first study to evaluate the effectiveness of intervention to ameliorate WM deficits commonly experienced by children with symptomatic epilepsy. Results support group improvement on some untrained tasks immediately postintervention, demonstrating preliminary usefulness of Cogmed as a treatment option.
A vast proportion of children with epilepsy exhibit memory impairments. Although numerous studies have examined memory performance following pediatric resective epilepsy surgery, little is known ...about the memory outcomes following hemispherectomy. The few studies that report on memory performance typically include restricted measures, consist of case reports, or do not report on preoperative performance. Given the current limitations, the aim of this study was to delineate pre- and postoperative memory functioning in youth who underwent a hemispherectomy.
Participants included patients who had undergone a hemispherectomy at the Hospital for Sick Children, between 1999 and 2016. Standardized neuropsychological assessments of verbal (digit span, word list recall, word pair recall, stories) and visual (faces, dot locations) memory abilities prior to and after surgery were reviewed. A Wilcoxon signed rank test and effect sizes was completed to compare patients' memory performance to population norms and to assess pre- to postoperative difference scores.
Thirteen participants were included in the study: five patients completed preoperative assessments only and eight patients completed pre- and postoperative assessments. Preoperatively, patients performed substantially worse relative to population norms as indicated by large effect sizes (r: 0.5–0.9). Postoperatively, effect sizes were large for the majority of the memory tests, demonstrating considerable differences in patients' memory scores over time. When clinically meaningful changes were examined, stable performance was evident on 63% of the memory tasks.
Overall, the results highlight that youth who are eligible for hemispherectomy demonstrate profound memory deficits prior to surgery. In addition, undergoing hemispherectomy was not necessarily associated with declined memory performance, with the majority of patients showing stable scores.
•Evaluated memory in youth with epilepsy prior to and following hemispherectomy.•Patients showed profound memory deficits prior to surgery.•Results suggest that memory deficits are not exacerbated in most children after hemispherectomy.
Hippocampal sclerosis (HS) is a common surgical substrate in adult epilepsy surgery cohorts but variably reported in various pediatric cohorts.
We aimed to study the epilepsy phenotype, radiological ...and pathological variability, seizure and neurocognitive outcomes in children with drug-resistant epilepsy and hippocampal sclerosis (HS) with or without additional subtle signal changes in anterior temporal lobe who underwent surgery.
This retrospective study enrolled children with drug-resistant focal epilepsy and hippocampal sclerosis with or without additional subtle T2-Fluid Attenuated Inversion Recovery (FLAR)/Proton Density (PD) signal changes in anterior temporal lobe who underwent anterior temporal lobectomy with amygdalohippocampectomy. Their clinical, EEG, neuropsychological, radiological and pathological data were reviewed and summarized.
Thirty-six eligible patients were identified. The mean age at seizure onset was 3.7 years; 25% had daily seizures at time of surgery. Isolated HS was noted in 22 (61.1%) cases and additional subtle signal changes in ipsilateral temporal lobe in 14 (38.9%) cases. Compared to the normative population, the group mean performance in intellectual functioning and most auditory and visual memory tasks were significantly lower than the normative sample. The mean age at surgery was 12.3 years; 22 patients (61.1%) had left hemispheric surgeries. ILAE class 1 outcomes was seen in 28 (77.8%) patients after a mean follow up duration of 2.3 years. Hippocampal sclerosis was noted pathologically in 32 (88.9%) cases; type 2 (54.5%) was predominant subtype where further classification was possible. Additional pathological abnormalities were seen in 11 cases (30.6%); these had had similar rates of seizure freedom as compared to children with isolated hippocampal sclerosis/gliosis (63.6% vs 84%, p=0.21). Significant reliable changes were observed across auditory and visual memory tasks at an individual level post surgery.
Favourable seizure outcomes were seen in most children with isolated radiological hippocampal sclerosis. Patients with additional pathological abnormalities had similar rates of seizure freedom as compared to children with isolated hippocampal sclerosis/gliosis.
•Subtle anterior temporal signal changes were noted in 38.9% children with hippocampal sclerosis (HS).•77.8% children became seizure free after anterior temporal lobectomy with amygdalohippocampectomy.•Overall, 30.6% cases had additional pathological abnormalities.•Seizure freedom rates of children with additional pathological abnormalities similar to those with isolated HS.
•Children with active epilepsy lag behind age peers in Adaptive Functioning (AF).•Intellectual ability is the most powerful cognitive predictor of limitations in AF.•Complex working memory (CWM) ...contributes to global and domain-specific AF.•CWM is potentially modifiable, making it important when trying to improve AF.•Predictors of AF are domain-specific and may guide skill-based intervention.
The current study sought to understand the contribution of the attention and working memory challenges experienced by children with active epilepsy without an intellectual disability to adaptive functioning (AF) while taking into account intellectual ability, co-occurring brain-based psychosocial diagnoses, and epilepsy-related variables.
The relationship of attention and working memory with AF was examined in 76 children with active epilepsy with intellectual ability above the 2nd percentile recruited from a tertiary care center. AF was measured using the Scales of Independent Behavior–Revised (SIB-R) and compared with norm-referenced data. Standardized clinical assessments of attention span, sustained attention, as well as basic and more complex working memory were administered to children. Commonality analysis was used to investigate the importance of the variables with respect to the prediction of AF and to construct parsimonious models to elucidate the factors most important in explaining AF.
Seventy-one percent of parents reported that their child experienced mild to severe difficulties with overall AF. Similar proportions of children displayed limitations in domain-specific areas of AF (Motor, Social/Communication, Person Living, and Community Living). The reduced models for Broad and domain-specific AF produced a maximum of seven predictor variables, with little loss in overall explained variance compared to the full models. Intellectual ability was a powerful predictor of Broad and domain-specific AF. Complex working memory was the only other cognitive predictor retained in each of the parsimonious models of AF. Sustained attention and complex working memory explained a large amount of the total variance in Motor AF. Children with a previously diagnosed comorbidity displayed lower Social/Communication, Personal Living, and Broad AF than those without a diagnosis. At least one epilepsy-related variable appeared in each of the reduced models, with age of seizure onset and seizure type (generalized or partial) being the main predictors.
Intellectual ability was the most powerful predictor of AF in children with epilepsy whose intellectual functioning was above the 2nd percentile. Co-occurring brain-based cognitive and psychosocial issues experienced by children with living epilepsy, particularly complex working memory and diagnosed comorbidities, contribute to AF and may be amenable to intervention.
Children with epilepsy commonly have comorbid neurocognitive impairments that severely affect their psychosocial well‐being, education, and future career prospects. Although the provenance of these ...deficits is multifactorial, the effects of interictal epileptiform discharges (IEDs) and anti‐seizure medications (ASMs) are thought to be particularly severe. Although certain ASMs can be leveraged to inhibit IED occurrence, it remains unclear whether epileptiform discharges or the medications themselves are most deleterious to cognition. To examine this question, 25 children undergoing invasive monitoring for refractory focal epilepsy performed one or more sessions of a cognitive flexibility task. Electrophysiological data were recorded to detect IEDs. Between repeated sessions, prescribed ASMs were either continued or titrated to <50% of the baseline dose. Hierarchical mixed‐effects modeling assessed the relationship between task reaction time (RT), IED occurrence, ASM type, and dose while controlling for seizure frequency. Both presence (β ± SE = 49.91 ± 16.55 ms, p = .003) and number of IEDs (β ± SE = 49.84 ± 12.51 ms, p < .001) were associated with slowed task RT. Higher dose oxcarbazepine significantly reduced IED frequency (p = .009) and improved task performance (β ± SE = −107.43 ± 39.54 ms, p = .007). These results emphasize the neurocognitive consequences of IEDs independent of seizure effects. Furthermore, we demonstrate that inhibition of IEDs following treatment with select ASMs is associated with improved neurocognitive function.
Summary
Objective
Children with epilepsy have elevated rates of behavior problems. Research findings on the impact of epilepsy surgery on children's behavior have been mixed, with some studies ...showing improvements in behavior 3 to 18 months after surgery and other studies finding no change within this time interval. We examined behavior in a large surgical sample and in a nonsurgical comparison group. We also examined for potential effects of epilepsy‐related and cognitive/linguistic variables.
Methods
Behavior was assessed by parent report in 147 children who underwent epilepsy surgery and 40 children who did not, using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). For the surgical group, the CBCL was completed prior to surgery (baseline) and approximately 1 year after surgery (follow‐up); ratings of the nonsurgical group were also conducted twice, at comparable intervals.
Results
At baseline, the groups did not differ on age, sex, age at seizure onset, antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), or intelligence quotient (IQ). Baseline Social and Attention Problems were higher in the nonsurgical group. At follow‐up, 65% of the surgical group and 20% of the nonsurgical group were seizure‐free. Behavioral change was not related to surgical status or seizure outcome. Children with temporal lobe seizure focus had more Externalizing Behaviors compared to those with frontal or multilobar foci. Attention was poorer in children who underwent frontal lobe excisions relative to temporal or multilobar excisions. Baseline IQ did not predict behavioral change.
Significance
Our results suggest that surgery and seizure outcome do not affect behavior in the first year following surgery; it may be the abnormal neural substrate and not seizure control that influences behavior in children with epilepsy. If changes are to occur due to seizure freedom, they may require a longer time to emerge. Some behaviors may be resistant to change in children with epilepsy or may require even longer intervals for improvement.
•Subtle but important cognitive and behavioural changes can occur while admitted to the EMU.•Taking lessons from spaceflight, we piloted a daily psychomotor vigilance task in capturing these ...changes.•Task performance is associated with epileptiform activity and number of antiseizure medications administered.•Routine assessment of psychomotor vigilance can help clinicians capture important neurocognitive changes.
The epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU) is a complex and dynamic operational environment, where the cognitive and behavioural consequences of medical and environmental changes often go unnoticed. The psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) has been used to detect changes in cognition and behaviour in numerous contexts, including among astronauts on spaceflight missions, pilots, and commercial drivers. Here, we piloted serial point-of-care administration of the PVT in children undergoing invasive monitoring in the EMU. Seven children completed the PVT throughout their hospital admission and their performance was associated with daily seizure counts, interictal epileptiform discharges, number of antiseizure medications (ASMs) administered, and sleep quality metrics. Using mixed-effects models, we found that PVT reaction time and accuracy were adversely affected by greater number of ASMs and interictal epileptiform activity. We show that serial point-of-care PVT is simple and feasible in the EMU and may enable greater understanding of individual patient responses to medical and environmental alterations, inform clinical decision-making, and support quality-improvement and research initiatives.
Neurocognitive outcomes after surgery for temporal lobe epilepsy in childhood are variable. Postoperative changes are not directly predicted by seizure freedom, and associations between epilepsy, ...neuropsychological function, and developing neural networks are poorly understood. Here, we leveraged whole-brain connectomic profiling in magnetoencephalography (MEG) to retrospectively study associations between brain connectivity and neuropsychological function in children with temporal lobe epilepsy undergoing resective surgery.
Clinical and MEG data were retrospectively analyzed for children who underwent temporal lobe epilepsy surgery at the Hospital for Sick Children from 2000 to 2021. Resting-state connectomes were constructed from neuromagnetic oscillations via the weighted-phase lag index. Using a partial least-squares (PLS) approach, we assessed multidimensional associations between patient connectomes, neuropsychological scores, and clinical covariates. Bootstrap resampling statistics were performed to assess statistical significance.
A total of 133 medical records were reviewed, and 5 PLS analyses were performed. Each PLS analysis probed a particular neuropsychological domain and the associations between its baseline and postoperative scores and the connectomic data. In each PLS analysis, a significant latent variable was identified, representing a specific percentage of the variance in the data and relating neural networks to clinical covariates, which included changes in rote verbal memory (n = 41,
= 0.01, σ
= 0.38), narrative/verbal memory (n = 57,
= 0.00, σ
= 0.52), visual memory (n = 51,
= 0.00, σ
= 0.43), working memory (n = 44,
= 0.00, σ
= 0.52), and overall intellectual function (n = 59,
= 0.00, σ
= 0.55). Children with more diffuse, bilateral intrinsic connectivity across several frequency bands showed lower scores on all neuropsychological assessments but demonstrated a greater propensity for gains after resective surgery.
Here, we report that connectomes characterized by diffuse connectivity, reminiscent of developmentally immature networks, are associated with lower preoperative cognition and postoperative cognitive improvement. These findings provide a potential means to understand neurocognitive function in children with temporal lobe epilepsy and expected changes postoperatively.
•Teachers demonstrate limited knowledge about epilepsy and seizures.•Poor knowledge may impact the social and academic functioning of youth with epilepsy.•A brief video improved pre-service teachers’ ...understanding of epilepsy.
Relative to the general population, children with epilepsy (CWE) demonstrate difficulties in aspects of cognition and mental health. Previous studies have found that teachers have poor knowledge about epilepsy, which may lead to inadequate management of CWE’s comorbidities and seizures, potentially impacting CWE’s school performance, social development, and safety. The current study aimed to evaluate whether a brief training program improves teachers’ epilepsy knowledge.
Participants included pre-service teachers enrolled in the Faculty of Education at Western University (London, Ontario, Canada). There were no exclusion criteria. Pre-service teachers completed a questionnaire evaluating their experiences and knowledge of epilepsy prior to, and two weeks following, the training program. The training program consisted of a 10.5-min video and booklet that described the characteristics of seizures, seizure first aid, and the cognitive, psychological, and social consequences of epilepsy.
Pre-service teachers’ knowledge about epilepsy, seizure safety, and common comorbidities associated with epilepsy significantly improved after participating in the training program. Furthermore, pre-service teachers indicated greater self-reported knowledge about epilepsy and greater preparedness to handle a seizure in the classroom.
The results of the current study demonstrated that a brief, cost-effective training program significantly enhances teachers’ knowledge about epilepsy, seizure safety, and the comorbidities associated with epilepsy. Enhancing teachers’ knowledge about epilepsy has the potential to improve children’s academic and social success in school.
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