Cognitive Coping and Frontal Lobe Epilepsy: A Task Switching Study

Amara Gul Hira Ahmad

doi:10.4172/2376-0281.1000112

Abstract

The present study examines the role of cognitive coping in task switching abilities of patients with frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE). Participants (25 patients with FLE & 25 healthy controls) performed switching task and reported the use of cognitive coping strategies. Results showed that patients with FLE had sustained attention for emotion which lead to the unbalanced switch cost between tasks. This pattern of results did not appear in controls. Relative to controls, patients with FLE reported more frequent use of maladaptive cognitive coping strategies such as self-blame, other blame, rumination, and catastrophizing and less frequent use of putting into perspective, positive refocusing, positive reappraisal, acceptance and planning. Cognitive coping strategies were associated with switch costs. Greater use of maladaptive strategies was positively correlated with weaker task switching abilities. This study for the first time highlighted the role of cognitive coping in frontal lobe epilepsy during switching conditions. Implications of results were discussed.

Highlights

Frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE) is characterized by short-term, frequent seizures that arise in the frontal lobes of the brain [1]
Mean RTs were submitted to a repeated measures analysis of variance with trial, task as within subject factors and group as between subject factors
Switch cost for the age task was larger than the emotion task t (24) = 7.10, p

Summary

Introduction

Frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE) is characterized by short-term, frequent seizures that arise in the frontal lobes of the brain [1]. Patients may experience abnormalities in body posturing, motor skills and sensorimotor tics. These symptoms are recurrent due to the overactivationwithinone central foci that moves to lateral brain regions [2]. Patients with frontal lesions in either hemisphere take longer time to learn the cognitive task and show more errors [12,13]. After excisions of the frontal lobe, patients show impairment in memory and learning an inefficient use of a strategy which is required for successful performance [15,16,17,18]. Patients with frontal lobe lesions experience significant problems in response preparation and inhibition [27]

Methods

Results

Conclusion