The relationship between semantic and episodic memory: evidence from a case of severe anterograde amnesia.

Publisher: Routledge Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 8411889 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1464-0627 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 02643294 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Cogn Neuropsychol Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: 2013- : London : Routledge
Original Publication: London ; Hillsdale, N.J. : Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, c1984-

Memory, Episodic* ; Amnesia, Anterograde*/complications; Male ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Semantics ; Amnesia/complications ; Amnesia/psychology ; Learning ; Neuropsychological Tests

It is increasingly being recognized that new declarative, consciously accessible information can be learned in anterograde amnesia, but it is not clear whether this learning is supported by episodic or semantic memory. We report a case of a 55-year-old man who experienced severe amnesia after limited damage to the medial temporal lobe following neurosurgical complications. His general cognitive performance and knowledge of new French words and public events that occurred before and after the onset of amnesia were assessed. Performance remained satisfactory on post-morbid vocabulary and public events, with a drop in performance observed for very recent public events only, while knowledge of very recent vocabulary was comparable to that of the control subjects. The implications of these findings for our understanding of the underlying learning mechanisms are discussed. This is the first report of acquisition of consciously accessible postmorbid knowledge of public events in a patient with severe amnesia.

Keywords: Anterograde amnesia; case report; public events; semantic learning

Date Created: 20230826 Date Completed: 20231006 Latest Revision: 20231011

20231011

10.1080/02643294.2023.2250532

37632139