Abstract:

Despite the average overall intellectual ability, children with partial epilepsy show cognitive deficits and poorer memory skills. The current study has been designed to investigate visuo-constructional abilities and long-term visual memory in the group of children with partial epilepsy, as well as to find out the relationship between the above mentioned abilities and seizure laterality in a group of 31 children with partial epilepsy ranging from 7 to 11 years of age. The case of children was compared to 30 healthy age-matched children. Appropriate psychological and neuropsychological tests were administered individually to all the participants. The tests were selected to measure overall intellectual functioning, visuo-constructional skills and long-term visual memory. The results revealed significantly poorer performance in visuo-constructional skills of the group of children with partial epilepsy compared to the age-matched controls. No significant difference in long-term visual memory was observed, although the case of children's performance scores were lower.

Keywords: children, partial epilepsy, long-term visual memory, visuo-constructional abilities