Baseline neuropsychological characteristics in patients with epilepsy with left temporal lobe encephaloceles compared with left mesial temporal sclerosis

•Temporal encephaloceles (TE) are increasingly recognized as a cause of drug-resistant epilepsy.•Baseline neuropsychological characteristics of five patients with left TE and five controls with left MTS were compared.•Patients with MTS were more likely to have atypical language lateralization.•Higher global IQ and VCI scores were noted in TE, perhaps related to longer duration of epilepsy in MTS.•A larger sample size is needed to establish a TE-specific neuropsychological profile.