Epilepsy and memory impairment

Taira Uehara

Departments of Neurology, International University of Health and Welfare Narita Hospital

Patients with epilepsy, especially temporal lobe epilepsy （TLE）, suffer from not only seizures but also memory impairment.　TLE patients show three types of memory impairment:short-term memory impairment, accelerated long-term forgetting （ALF）, and remote memory impairment.　Short-term memory impairment is multifactorial and shares factors with Alzheimer’s disease （AD）, such as hippocampal neural loss, tauopathy, default-mode network dysfunction.　Recent evidence suggests that ALF is a disorder of memory consolidation caused by epileptic discharges.　However, ALF can be seen in preclinical AD patients, suggesting that other causes may exist.　The pathomechanisms of remote memory impairment are less understood than the other two.

Address correspondence to Dr. Taira Uehara, Departments of Neurology, International University of Health and Welfare Narita Hospital（852 Hatakeda, Narita 286-0124, Japan）