Epilepsy and cognitive plasticity

Abstract

Epilepsy provided neuropsychology with the canonical cases of amnesia and episodic memory disorders. These cases strongly encouraged the development of modular conceptions of memory. As neuropsychology moves to develop non-modular, network approaches to cognition, it is ironic that epilepsy can be seen as providing clear, illustrative examples of a network disturbance in cognition. The key to understanding this shift in thinking is to grasp that the neural mechanism underlying network development (i.e., neuroplasticity) and the neuropathology of seizures are separated by little. Many of the neural mechanisms of learning are key factors in the regulation of seizures, and the highly plastic regions specialized for learning and memory are also prone to seizures. More than characterizing the effects of seizures, and determining the risks and outcomes of brain surgery, there are fundamental cognitive neuroscience reasons for the neuropsychologist to study epilepsy. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.