Right hippocampal impairment in the recall of spatial location: encoding deficit or rapid forgetting?
The recall of spatial location in patients with left or right temporal-lobe lesions was studied in two experiments, in which recall was tested either immediately after presentation of an array of objects, or after an intervening verbal task, a spatial task or an unfilled interval. Deficits were found only in patients with right temporal-lobe lesions that included extensive removal of the hippocampal region, and only when recall was tested after a delay. The presence of an intervening task in the delay interval did not accentuate the deficit. The results show that, despite a normal ability to encode location, patients with large right hippocampal lesions demonstrate an abnormally rapid forgetting of such information.
Smith
M L
ML
Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Milner
B
B
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000503:physiopathology; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D004828:Epilepsies, Partial / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011612:Psychosurgery; D012153:Retention, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000601:surgery*