[Neurocognitive abilities in schoolchildren with periventricular leukomalacia. Preliminary results in 15 patients].

INTRODUCTION

Apart from chronic motor disorder and the possible sensory deficits (visual, propioception) associated to periventricular leukomalacia (PVL), disorders involving the integration of higher functions due to bilateral injury to the occipital parietal junction are relatively common.

AIMS: Our aim was to further our knowledge of the neuropsychological characteristics of this non progressive cerebral motor disorder. Patients and methods. We analysed a sample of 15 patients with spastic diplegia due to PVL who did not present mental retardation (verbal IQ> 75 and mean verbal IQ= 91, WISC R) in order to evaluate their visual gnosis praxis, verbal and visual memory, psycholinguistic and attentional capabilities.

RESULTS

Disorders involving visuospatial integration and visual constructive memory are frequent. Long term verbal memory is poor (in fact in some cases it is clearly deficient), but can be improved with associative learning. They do not present any difficulties regarding attention and some subjects display deficiencies in the pragmatic use of language. This research is still underway and the findings presented here are preliminary.

CONCLUSIONS

The neuropsychological profile of the diplegic children who were studied shares the characteristics of non verbal learning disorder. The declarative memory disorder observed in several of the subjects in our sample, who were all born premature and below weight, can be accounted for by a bihippocampal pathology or by a dysexecutive disorder.