Utility of automated memory measures in identifying cognitive impairment in adults with epilepsy

• Published in: Epilepsy & behavior 2024-07, Vol.156, p.109785, Article 109785
• Main Authors: Postle, Abagail F., Hogue, Olivia, Floden, Darlene P., Busch, Robyn M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Brief Assessment of Cognitive Health; Cognition; Cognitive Dysfunction - diagnosis; Cognitive Dysfunction - etiology; Computerized; Epilepsy; Epilepsy - complications; Epilepsy - diagnosis; Epilepsy - psychology; Female; Humans; Male; Memory; Memory Disorders - diagnosis; Memory Disorders - etiology; Middle Aged; Neuropsychological Tests; Recognition, Psychology - physiology; Screening; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1525-5050; 1525-5069; 1525-5069
• DOI: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2024.109785

•The Words and Faces tests are self-administered, computerized recognition memory tasks.•The Words and Faces tests show good convergent and divergent validity with gold standard neuropsychological testing in epilepsy.•The Words and Faces tests show excellent predictive accuracy in identifying patients with impairments on traditional memory measures.•Patients with epilepsy have lower scores on these automated memory measures than healthy controls.•Scores on the Words and Faces tests are associated with AED burden and seizure localization.•The Words and Faces tests are valid, computerized tools that can be used to screen for memory and other cognitive impairment in epilepsy. Cognitive impairment is prevalent in epilepsy and often presents at the time of initial diagnosis. This study sought to validate brief, self-administered, iPad-based recognition memory tasks in a sample of patients with epilepsy and to examine their screening utility in identifying patients with cognitive impairment. The Words and Faces tests were administered to 145 adult patients with epilepsy along with a neuropsychological battery. Correlation analyses examined the convergent and divergent validity of the Words and Faces tests, and a series of logistic regression analyses examined discriminative ability in identifying patients with and without cognitive impairments on neuropsychological measures. Patient performance was compared to that of a healthy control group (n = 223), and the relationship between the Words and Faces test performance and disease-related variables (i.e., antiepileptic medication burden, seizure lateralization/localization) was examined. The Words and Faces tests were positively correlated with traditional paper-and-pencil neuropsychological measures of episodic memory, with generally moderate to large effect sizes (r > .40), while correlations between the Words and Faces tests and non-memory measures were generally small in magnitude (r