Semantic amnesia with preservation of autobiographic memory. A case report.
A 44-year-old woman showed, following an episode of encephalitis, an impoverished knowledge of the meaning and attributes of words and their referents, in spite of intact command of grammatical-syntactic rules and preserved perceptual abilities. There was also a complete loss of the stock of notions she had acquired over her life and constituting the cultural background of a person, in contrast with normal memory for autobiographic events. The case is interpreted as an instance of semantic amnesia. MRI showed damage confined to the antero-medial part of the left temporal lobe.
Clinica Neurologica, Università di Modena.
E
E
De Renzi
M
M
Liotti
P
P
Nichelli
D000328:Adult; D000647:Amnesia / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D007858:Learning; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008568:Memory; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000473:pathology; D014706:Verbal Learning; D014785:Vision, Ocular