Comparison between two scoring systems of the Rey–Osterrieth Complex Figure in left and right temporal lobe epileptic patients

Abstract

The Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure (ROCF) is probably one of the most popular measurement instruments of visuoconstructional abilities and nonverbal memory. It is frequently part of neuropsychological test protocols in epilepsy surgery centers. In this study we compared the traditional scoring system of the ROCF developed by Taylor (1998) with a qualitative system that assesses spatial-relational errors devised by Loring et al. [Loring, D. W., Lee, G. P., & Meador, K. J. (1988). Revising the Rey-Osterrieth: Rating right hemisphere recall. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 3, 239-247] in a sample of left and right temporal lobe epilepsy patients undergoing pre-surgical evaluation. We investigated whether the relational-spatial scoring system would be more sensitive to right-sided memory deficits than the traditional Taylor version. There was no difference in the copy phase of the ROCF between the clinical and control groups. There was a significant difference between the control and the clinical groups when the 30-min delayed recall drawings were scored with the Taylor system. However, this system failed to find differences between left and right temporal lobe epileptic patients. On the other hand, comparisons with the qualitative scoring criteria used by Loring et al. [Loring, D. W., Lee, G. P., & Meador, K. J. (1988). Revising the Rey-Osterrieth: Rating right hemisphere recall. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 3, 239-247] revealed that right temporal lobe patients made more spatial-relational errors than patients with left-sided foci. Frequency distribution of these scores for all the three groups and sensitivity and specificity to correctly classify right temporal lobe patients are presented. This investigation demonstrated that applying qualitative, material-specific scoring criteria improves temporal lobe epilepsy presurgical protocols.

Persistence of visuo-constructional and executive deficits in adolescents after open-heart surgery

“…Generally, the copy condition ought to assess visuoconstructional, visuospatial, planning/organizational and graphomotor skills, while the recall condition additionally assesses visual memory capacities (Ruffolo, Javorsky, Tremont, Westervelt, & Stern, 2001). To the best of our knowledge, so far only one study has compared different scoring systems of the ROCFT in a clinical sample: Frank and Landeira-Fernandez (2008) found performance differences on the ROCFT between patients with left versus right temporal lobe epilepsy upon using a qualitative scoring system, while quantitative scoring approaches failed to detect significant group differences.…”

Modified Taylor Complex Figure: Normative data from 290 adults

“…The ROCF has a long history in neuropsychology both in clinical and research settings: it is used to assess a variety of cognitive processes such as visuo‐spatial functions, visual episodic memory, planning, organizational skills, problem‐solving, executive functions, visuo‐motor coordination, and constructional praxis (Meyers & Meyers, ). Accordingly, this test has been administered to patients with traumatic brain injuries (Bigler, ), amnesia (Kixmiller, Verfaellie, Mather, & Cermak, ), dementia (Pelati et al ., ), and epilepsy (Barr et al ., ; Frank & Landeira‐Fernandez, ; Wisniewski, Wendling, Manning, & Steinhoff, ), but it has been used also in psychiatric populations, such as patients with obsessive‐compulsive disorders or schizophrenia (Kim, Namgoong, & Youn, ; Seidman, Lanca, Kremen, Faraone, & Tsuang, ; Shin et al ., ). The ROCF can be administered to both children (Mati‐Zissi & Zafiropoulou, ) and elderly people (Elderkin‐Thompson et al ., ).…”

Nonverbal Memory Capacity in Persons with Epilepsy Is Associated with Depression Rather than Anxiety

“…However, some studies suggested lower results for Immediate Recall and Delayed Recall tasks on nonverbal material in patients with right-sided TLE. Frank and Landeira-Fernandez off er an explanation for the diffi culty of reproducing this fi nding in our study, indicating that the fi gural stimulus used for testing nonverbal memory is not optimally constructed 21 . Th ey suggest that fi gural stimuli can be verbalized and modifi ed as linguistic stimuli, i.e.…”

“…Previous research has clearly demonstrated the comorbidity of depression and anxiety with epilepsy [22][23][24][25][26] . Nine (15%) participants in our study were depressed, while seven (12%) had signifi cantly elevated anxiety.…”