Conferencia pronunciada en la Presentación del Area de Neuropsicología de la Epilepsia el 3 de Noviembre de 1999
(Hora: 22.30 (GMT +1) . Lugar: canal #neuropsico)
 
 Summary of Symposium

Welcome to the International Congress of Neuropsychology on the Internet. The section on the Neuropsychology of Epilepsy is intended to provide information about advances in the study of  cognitive impairments that occur in association with this disease, and the implications for developing advanced knowledge about normal and abnormal cognitive processes in general.   Advancements in technology, medicine, and psychological methods have enhanced our knowledge and ability to study cognitive impairments in epilepsy tremendously over the past two decades.  The goal of this collection of papers is to provide summaries in selected areas as a way of facilitating discussion about these and related areas among the international neuropsychological community.

The objective of many Neuropsychological studies is fundamentally clinical.  However, our findings also contribute to the knowledge of functional organization of the human brain and the impact of pathological processes on function.   Neuropsychology as a discipline is unique in that more detailed comprehensive evaluation of cognitive function is performed.  This allows us to delimit the factors that contribute to cognitive deterioration through dissociation of cognitive processes using reliable and valid psychometric procedures in conjunction with other technologies and treatments.  Towards this end, we have assembled an international collection of neuropsychologists to discuss the effects of epilepsy and its treatment on cognition.  Dr. Sherman and Dr. Lee will introduce issues related to Neuropsychology and surgical therapy of epilepsy in children and adults.  Dr. Aldenkamp will discuss his extensive experience with cognitive and learning effects of seizures and pharmacological treatments.  Dr. Westerveld and Dr. Loring will present a discussion of issues relating to the Wada test and its use in epilepsy surgery.  Finally, Dr. Simos will introduce the technique of Magnetoencephalography for in vivo, noninvasive mapping of cognitive processes.

We hope that these presentations enrich everyoneís understanding and we invite you to share your own experiences to enrich all of our knowledge about epilepsy and cognitive functioning.

Dr. Fernando Maestu Ph.D.
Michael Westerveld, Ph.D.

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