Abstract
The individual profiled here (M.S.) suffered an episode of severe oxygen deprivation (anoxia) at the age of eight, damaging memory relevant structures in the mid-temporal lobes, including the hippocampus bilaterally. The resulting anterograde amnesia was characterized by profound deficits in autobiographical memory, but also a compromised ability to acquire new facts and information (semantic memory), resulting in the formation of idiosyncratic and naïve beliefs about the natural world that have persisted into his adult years. This article presents an interview with M.S. in which many of these idiosyncratic beliefs are detailed, and argues that they can be broadly viewed as the interaction of; 1) intact frontal lobe functioning that supports the application of rational analysis to his lived experience, and 2) an impoverished factual knowledge base upon which to construct sophisticated and evidence-based models of his lived experience and of natural world processes.
Highlights
The critical role of the hippocampus in the formation of new long-term memories was first documented in seminal papers reporting the famous case of Henry Gustav Molaison, who until his death in 2008 was known in the psychological literature as H.M. (e.g., Corkin, 1984; Corkin, 2002; Scoville & Milner, 1957)
In the years since these reports, cognitive neuroscience has definitively established that injury to structures in the mid-temporal lobes, notably the hippocampus and surrounding cortex, produces a relatively isolated impairment of long term memory, a condition known as anterograde amnesia
The extent and severity of M.S.'s amnesia may seem anomalous when compared to some other reports of childhood amnesics, including those with specific hippocampal injury
Summary
The critical role of the hippocampus in the formation of new long-term memories was first documented in seminal papers reporting the famous case of Henry Gustav Molaison, who until his death in 2008 was known in the psychological literature as H.M. (e.g., Corkin, 1984; Corkin, 2002; Scoville & Milner, 1957). An amnestic condition similar to the one produced by mid-temporal lobe damage can be produced by damage to the thalamus, midline thalamic nuclei (Squire, 1982; Squire, 1992; Victor, Adams, & Collins, 1989) Damage to this area of the thalamus location produces a condition known as Korsakoff's syndrome, which has been determined to be a consequence of long term alcohol abuse (Butters, 1985; Moscovitch, 1982; Shimamura, Janowsky, & Squire, 1990; Squire, 1982). In addition to anterograde amnesia, Korsakoff's syndrome is characterized by deficits such as an impaired sense for the temporal order of events and a tendency toward confabulation (Moscovitch, 1982; Shimamura, Janowsky, & Squire, 1990; Squire, 1982)
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