We examined performances on the Wechsler Memory Scale–3rd
Edition (WMS–III) among patients who underwent temporal lobectomy
for the control of medically intractable epilepsy. There were 51 right
(RTL) and 56 left (LTL) temporal lobectomy patients. All patients were
left hemisphere speech-dominant. The LTL and RTL patients were
comparable in terms of general demographic, epilepsy, and
intellectual/attention factors. Multivariate analyses revealed a
significant crossover interaction (p < .001), with the RTL
group scoring significantly lower on the visual than auditory indexes
while the LTL group scored significantly lower on the auditory than
visual memory indexes. Within-group pairwise analyses revealed
statistically significant auditory versus visual index score
comparisons (all p < .001) for both surgical groups.
Discriminant analysis (p < .001) identified Verbal Paired
Associates I, Faces I, and Family Pictures II to significantly
discriminate RTL and LTL patients, with an overall correct
classification rate of 81.3%. Our findings suggest that the
WMS–III is sensitive to modality-specific memory performance
associated with unilateral temporal lobectomy. (JINS, 2004,
10, 173–179.)