title: Pure retrograde amnesia following a mild head trauma: a neuropsychological and metabolic study.
abstract: After a minor closed head injury, a 33-year-old man acquired extensive retrograde amnesia (RA) covering the previous ten years and concerning autobiographical, semantic and procedural memories. The patient's learning abilities remained excellent and he recovered considerable information from his wife, the media and personal documents. This relearned information did not, however, provide a sense of personal experience in the first weeks. CT and MRI failed to show brain damage, but EEG and SPECT examination showed a marked right temporal dysfunction. After three months the patient had almost completely recovered from RA. Interestingly, a parallel recovery was observed in the second SPECT obtained at this period. There was clearly a blockade of retrieval, while the stored engrams were probably intact. The mechanisms underlying such a functional amnesia are discussed in the light of previous reports of amnesia without brain lesions.
authors.affiliation: Service de Neurologie, Neuropsychologie et Explorations Fonctionnelles des Epilepsies, Hĵpitaux Universitaires de Strasbourg, France. Francois.Sellal@chru-strasbourg.fr
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sellal
authors.forename: Lilianne
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Manning
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Seegmuller
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Scheiber
authors.forename: Francis
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Schoenfelder
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000648:Amnesia, Retrograde / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma / Q000150:complications*; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D013997:Time Factors; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / Q000379:methods; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods