Interictal epileptiform discharges contribute to word-finding difficulty in epilepsy through multiple cognitive mechanisms.

Objective: Cognitive impairment often impacts quality of life in epilepsy even if seizures are controlled. Word-finding difficulty is particularly prevalent and often attributed to etiological (static, baseline) circuit alterations. We sought to determine whether interictal discharges convey significant superimposed contributions to word-finding difficulty in patients, and if so, through which cognitive mechanism(s).