It is well known that structures within the medial temporal lobes play critical roles in the encoding, storage and retrieval of recent memories. Often, the only way of alleviating seizures in patients with severe epilepsy is to remove the anterior two-thirds of the medial temporal lobe on either the left or right sides of the brain, depending upon the site of the seizure focus. Recording ERPs from the scalps of patients with such removals, therefore, provides a means of assessing the medial temporal region’s impact on the various stages of memory encoding, formation and retrieval. The hippocampus is also thought to be one of the generators of the P3 component elicited by pre-instructed target tones and unexpected novel events. Studies of recency/recognition memory and of the P3 elicited by target tones and novel environmental sounds with patients who have undergone unilateral medial temporal lobectomies are currently underway in the CEPL.
Responsible Investigators: David Friedman, Marla Hamberger, Doreen Nessler