Evidence of very fast memory consolidation: an intracarotid amytal study.
This study provides evidence from intracarotid amobarbital tests (IAT) in patients with epilepsy that complete suppression of the electrophysiological activity of the left language-dominant hemisphere through left IAT does not impair memory for verbal information given 1 min or immediately before the injection of the barbiturate. Although language functions were completely disrupted and patients were unable to encode new information during the left IAT, pre/post memory was as good as in the right IAT. This lack of retrograde amnesia leads to the conclusion that a relatively stable representation of events is achieved within seconds after encoding. The results contradict models which assume that short-term memory is based on purely electrophysiological processes.
Gleissner
U
U
Klinik für Epileptologie, Bonn, Germany.
Helmstaedter
C
C
Kurthen
M
M
Elger
C E
CE
D000654:Amobarbital / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002343:Carotid Artery, Internal; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000187:drug effects*; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006993:Hypnotics and Sedatives / Q000494:pharmacology*; D007269:Injections, Intra-Arterial; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects*; D013997:Time Factors; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000187:drug effects*
D006993:Hypnotics and Sedatives; D000654:Amobarbital