Summary:Purpose: The present study aims at characterizing remote memory in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE); it also considers the impact of its most important variables (lateralization of the lesion, duration of epilepsy, age at onset, and seizure frequency) on remote memory.Methods: We examined the performance of 38 patients with unilateral TLE (19 right TLE and 19 left TLE) and 35 healthy subjects on six remote memory tasks. Memory for personal events was assessed by using the Autobiographical Memory Interview and the Modified Crovitz Test. Memory for public events was evaluated by means of photographs of famous faces and famous scenes, questions about famous events, and the Dead/Alive Test.Results: Both right-TLE and left-TLE groups had impaired memory for autobiographic episodes and public events relative to normal subjects. In contrast, personal semantic memory was preserved. In addition, an effect of laterality was recorded, with right-TLE patients obtaining significantly better scores than left-TLE patients on every test. Duration of epilepsy, age at onset, and seizure frequency did not influence performance on remote memory measures.Conclusions: The comprehensive neuropsychological study of 38 TLE patients showed that this neurologic condition affects remote memory systems differently. We discuss the different factors that could account for this pattern of performance on the bases of both functional brain organization and memory theories.

Background: Self-Defining Memories (SDMs) are a specific type of autobiographical memory, and that plays a key role in the construction of personal identity. Objective: We investigated the characteristics of SDMs in elderly subjects. The originality of the present study is to compare our elderly group to middle-aged subjects instead of young adults, as previously reported in the literature to understand the age-related modifications in SDMs. Method: We recruited 41 elderly subjects with normal cognitive functioning and 37 middle-aged adults. They were matched for education level and verbal knowledge. Result: Older participants recalled the same number of specific memories than middle-aged participants. SDMs were predominantly constituted of episodic characteristics, with specific details, in both groups. However, middle-aged subjects gave more integrative meaning of SDMs and more redemptive events than older participants. The two samples differed for three content dimensions (exploration/recreation, relationship contents, and not classifiable). As predicted, older participants reported memories that were more positive, on average, than the middle-aged participants’ memories. Conclusion: Our study added some contributions to the understanding of the consequences of aging on the self. Future research should explore the continuity of SDMs characteristics across the lifespan.

The multifocal nature of lesions in multiple sclerosis hints at the occurrence of autobiographical memory (AbM) impairment. However, the dearth of studies on AbM in multiple sclerosis is noticeable, notwithstanding the importance of AbM in everyday life. In the first section of this study, 25 multiple sclerosis patients and 35 controls underwent a detailed episodic AbM assessment. Results obtained by means of ANOVA suggested an AbM retrieval deficit in every patient. That pattern of performance paved the way for the second section of the study, in which we followed up 10 out of the 25 patients. Our objective was to assess the effectiveness of a cognitive facilitation programme designed to alleviate AbM retrieval deficits, based on the key role of mental visual imagery on AbM. Statistical group analyses by means of ANOVA and individual analyses using the χ 2 test showed significant differences in AbM test results, in post-facilitation relative to pre-facilitation training, in all 10 patients. Moreover, the patients' comments showed that the positive effects were transferred in their daily life functioning. We would like to suggest that the facilitation programme efficiently enhanced the process of selfcentred mental visual imagery, which might have compensated for poor retrieval of personal memories by providing better access to visual details and detailed visual scenes of personal recollections.

Previous studies have reported the major role of apathy in awareness assessment among Alzheimer’s patients using the patient-caregiver discrepancy method, whatever the awareness dimension assessed. Using the Apathy Evaluation Scales among other awareness scales, we report that apathy is the sole awareness dimension distinguishing healthy controls (25), mild (57) and moderate-to-moderately-severe (11) Alzheimer’s patients. A linear regression showed that the Mini-Mental State Examination score used as a risk factor for non-awareness was the only factor associated with awareness of apathy and was the best predictor. This suggests that apathy is the most discriminant dimension for awareness assessment in Alzheimer’s disease.

The study of seizure frequency as the main variable leads us to suggest that high seizure frequency, itself, potentiates the effects of mesial temporal lobe damage on episodic memory deficits.