Retrograde episodic and semantic memory impairment correlates with side of temporal lobe damage

Abstract

Patients with damage to the mesial and anterior portions of the temporal lobes suffer from a memory impairment involving both anterograde and retrograde amnesia. In the retrograde domain, it has been suggested that the relative severity of autobiographical and nonautobiographical memory impairment may depend on the prevalent side of the temporal damage. Here we present two patients suffering from damage to the mesial and anterior portions of the temporal lobes (hippocampal formation, parahippocampal gyrus and polar cortex) as a result of herpes encephalitis. In the first case, A.S., damage predominantly affected the right temporal lobe, whereas in the second patient, R.S., the damage was bilateral but more severe on the left side. A detailed investigation of the retrograde memory deficit demonstrated a partial double dissociation between the two patients, with A.S. almost exclusively impaired in the autobiographical domain (both episodic and semantic) and R.S. with poor performances in all domains, but much more severe in the nonautobiographical (both public events and general semantic knowledge) than in the autobiographical one. These findings reinforce the view of specialization of right and left temporal lobes in the retrieval of retrograde autobiographical and nonautobiographical memories, respectively. (JINS, 2008(JINS, , 14, 1083(JINS, -1094

The role of hippocampus in the retrieval of autobiographical memories in patients with amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment due to Alzheimer's disease

“…The temporal pole is typically involved in processing semantic information (Chang, Raygor, & Berger, ; Hanley, ; Jefferies, ) because it represents a convergence zone that integrates diverse streams of information into unique entities as it receives afferent fibres from anterior and posterior association cortices as well as from limbic structures (Markowitsch, Emmans, Irle, Streicher, & Preilowski, ). Lesion studies have documented retrograde amnesia for autobiographical memory in association with damage to the temporal pole (Buccione et al ., ; Insausti, Annese, Amaral, & Squire, ; Wheeler & McMillan, ). We sustain that damage in this area could interfere with information transfer, especially when white matter fibres are involved (Levine et al ., ).…”

“…Retrograde autobiographical memory has been traditionally investigated in two major types of neurological disorders, that is, organic amnesia due to focal brain lesions (Buccione, Fadda, Serra, Caltagirone, & Carlesimo, ; Dall'Ora, Della Sala, & Spinnler, ; Della Sala, Laiacona, Spinnler, & Trivelli, ; Kopelman, Stanhope, & Kingsley, ; Kopelman et al ., ) and neurodegenerative diseases (Barnabe, Whitehead, Pilon, Arsenault‐Lapierre, & Chertkow, ; Berna, Schönknecht, Seidl, Toro, & Schröder, ; Bizzozero, Lucchelli, Saetti, & Spinnler, ; Dall'Ora et al ., ; Gilboa et al ., ; Graham & Hodges, ; Greene & Hodges, ; Greene, Hodges, & Baddeley, ; Irish, Hornberger, et al ., ; Irish, Lawlor, O'Mara, & Coen, ; Ivanoiu, Cooper, Shanks, & Venneri, ; Kopelman, ; Leyhe, Müller, Milian, Eschweiler, & Saur, ; Matura et al ., ; Murphy, Troyer, Levine, & Moscovitch, ; Sagar, Cohen, Sullivan, Corkin, & Growdon, ).…”

Engineering synthetic optogenetic networks for biomedical applications

“…Retrograde amnesia usually follows damage to areas of the brain other than the hippocampus that deal largely with memory consolidation [48][49][50], because existing long-term memories are stored in the neurons and synapses of various different brain regions. Memory consolidation is the phenomenon characterized by newly formed memory transitions from a fragile state to a stable and persistent state.…”

FMRI contributions to addressing autobiographical memory impairment in temporal lobe pathology

“…There is usually extensive damage to the temporal lobes, including the medial temporal regions [114][115][116] and extending to the PFC [117,118] , although not necessarily [119] , and a severe memory impairment [114] . More specifically, neuropsychological research provides evidence of retrograde amnesia, particularly for autobiographical events [116,[120][121][122][123] . Despite evidence that encephalitis severely affects retrograde memory, especially AM, and may lead to interesting dissociations in relation to the side of damage [120] , fMRI investigations of AM in encephalitic patients are very rare [124] .…”

“…More specifically, neuropsychological research provides evidence of retrograde amnesia, particularly for autobiographical events [116,[120][121][122][123] . Despite evidence that encephalitis severely affects retrograde memory, especially AM, and may lead to interesting dissociations in relation to the side of damage [120] , fMRI investigations of AM in encephalitic patients are very rare [124] . In a single-case fMRI study, Berry et al [124] examined the neural correlates underlying "rehearsed" (reviewed) personal episodes in a woman, Mrs B, diagnosed with limbic encephalitis five years before the neuroimaging investigation and presenting with impaired memory for autobiographical events.…”