Analytic information processing style in epilepsy patients

•Analytic cognitive style and altered neural excitability were recently associated.•Analytic cognitive style has been previously linked to migraine.•We evaluated analytic/global and visual/auditory cognitive style in epilepsy.•Significant association between analytic style and both IGE and TLE is highlighted.•IGE and TLE respectively showed a predominant auditory and visual analytic style.

Relevant to the study of epileptogenesis is learning processing, given the pivotal role that neuroplasticity assumes in both mechanisms.Recently, evoked potential analyses showed a link between analytic cognitive style and altered neural excitability in both migraine and healthy subjects, regardless of cognitive impairment or psychological disorders.In this study we evaluated analytic/global and visual/auditory perceptual dimensions of cognitive style in patients with epilepsy.Twenty-five cryptogenic temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients matched with 25 idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE) sufferers and 25 healthy volunteers were recruited and participated in three cognitive style tests: “Sternberg-Wagner Self-Assessment Inventory”, the C. Cornoldi test series called AMOS, and the Mariani Learning style Questionnaire.Our results demonstrate a significant association between analytic cognitive style and both IGE and TLE and respectively a predominant auditory and visual analytic style (ANOVA: p values < 0,0001).These findings should encourage further research to investigate information processing style and its neurophysiological correlates in epilepsy.