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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Cognitive deficits’ profiles of attention and executive functions in epilepsy versus psychogenic non-epileptic seizure patients: A preliminary cross-sectional study

Lana Omari1,2 ,  Dana Ekstein3 ,  Eldad Keha1,4 ,  Aryeh Dienstag2,5 ,  Diya Doufish3 ,  Mordekhay Medvedovsky3 ,  Amichai Ben-Ari6,7 ,  Shiri Ben-David1,8*
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1 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
2 Neuropsychiatry Clinic, Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel
3 Department of Neurology, Agnes Ginges Center for Neurogenetics, Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel
4 Department of Psychology, Achva Academic College, Beer Tuvia, Israel
5 Department of Psychiatry, Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel
6 Department of Behavioral Sciences, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel
7 Herman Dana Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel
8 Department of Psychology, Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel
JCBP 2024, 2(4), 3847 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcbp.3847
Submitted: 4 June 2024 | Accepted: 19 July 2024 | Published: 30 October 2024
© 2024 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) resemble epileptic seizures (ES) but lack the associated brain electrical disruptions. Their underlying mechanism remains elusive, even though cognitive deficits are commonly reported in both ES and PNES patients. This preliminary cross-sectional study compared attention and executive functions in 20 patients with ES (ES group) and 18 with PNES or comorbid PNES and ES (PNES group) using the Stroop task and attentional network task (ANT). Both groups exhibited a significant Stroop effect, with no significant differences between them. In the ANT assessment, the ES group had significantly slower reaction times (RTs) in non-tone conditions compared to in-tone conditions (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, the PNES group displayed no significant difference in RTs between these conditions, indicating a more pronounced alerting effect in the ES compared to PNES group. No significant disparities emerged in executive control and orientation between the groups. The findings underscore differences in attentional processing between these groups, emphasizing the clinical significance of understanding these cognitive deficits for accurate diagnosis and tailored neuropsychological rehabilitation.

Keywords
Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures
Epileptic seizures
Attention
Executive functions
Alertness
Cognitive deficits
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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