Page 69 - JCBP-2-4

Journal of Clinical and

Basic Psychosomatics

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Cognitive deficits’ profiles of attention

and executive functions in epilepsy versus
psychogenic non-epileptic seizure patients: A

preliminary cross-sectional study

1,2
Lana Omari , Dana Ekstein 3 , Eldad Keha 1,4 , Aryeh Dienstag 2,5 ,
3
Diya Doufish , Mordekhay Medvedovsky , Amichai Ben-Ari 6,7 ,
3
1,8
and Shiri Ben-David *
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
*Corresponding author:
Shiri Ben-David
(shiri.ben-david@mail.huji.ac.il)
Citation: Omari L, Ekstein D, Keha
E, et al. Cognitive deficits’ profiles Abstract
of attention and executive functions
in epilepsy versus psychogenic Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) resemble epileptic seizures (ES) but
non-epileptic seizure patients: lack the associated brain electrical disruptions. Their underlying mechanism
A preliminary cross-sectional
study. J Clin Basic Psychosom. remains elusive, even though cognitive deficits are commonly reported in both
2024;2(4):3847. ES and PNES patients. This preliminary cross-sectional study compared attention
doi: 10.36922/jcbp.3847 and executive functions in 20 patients with ES (ES group) and 18 with PNES or
Received: June 4, 2024 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
Accepted: July 19, 2024
differences between them. In the ANT assessment, the ES group had significantly
Published Online: October 30, slower reaction times (RTs) in non-tone conditions compared to in-tone conditions
2024 (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, the PNES group displayed no significant difference in RTs
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s). between these conditions, indicating a more pronounced alerting effect in the ES
This is an Open-Access article compared to PNES group. No significant disparities emerged in executive control
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution and orientation between the groups. The findings underscore differences in
License, permitting distribution, attentional processing between these groups, emphasizing the clinical significance
and reproduction in any medium, of understanding these cognitive deficits for accurate diagnosis and tailored
provided the original work is
properly cited. neuropsychological rehabilitation.
Publisher’s Note: AccScience
Publishing remains neutral with Keywords: Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures; Epileptic seizures; Attention; Executive
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional functions; Alertness; Cognitive deficits
affiliations.

Volume 2 Issue 4 (2024) 1 doi: 10.36922/jcbp.3847