Experimental studies have identified pyramidal cells in hippocampus in rats with participation in the spatial orientation memory (SOM), which are named location cells. This study had the purpose to adapt a test based in these experiments in order to check the performance of SOM and the participation of hippocampus into SOM in patients with mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS). The research was divided into two studies: the first one the test was adapted, and in order to check its capacity to investigate the deficits of SOM, it has applied in groups of 10 (ten) subjects, one group with patients that have Alzheimer disease and the other one with healthy elderly (p<0.001). The second study has evaluated the participation of hippocampus into SOM in 43 patients (23 with mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS) and 20 submitted to selective amygdala hippocampectomy (SAH)) and 23 healthy volunteers with p<0,05 between MTS and SAH and between controled and SAH. It was shown that the test of SOM is suitable to evaluate deficits, but it seems the SOM is not a specific function of human hippocampus.
memory; spatial orientation; epilepsy; mesial temporal sclerosis; selective amygdala hippocampectomy
