Successful recollection of remote autobiographical memories by amnesic patients with medial temporal lobe lesions.
Current views about the organization of human memory make strikingly different predictions about the integrity of remote autobiographical memory following damage to the medial temporal lobe. We have carried out a detailed analysis of narrative content in memory-impaired patients for whom neuropsychological and neuroanatomical information is available. All eight patients were able to recall detailed memories from their early lives. The recollections of the patients and the recollections of 25 matched controls contained the same number of details (+/-5%) and were also similar by several other measures. The results support the view that autobiographical memories eventually become independent of the medial temporal lobe as time passes after learning. A number of other considerations suggest that the neocortex ultimately supports the capacity for recollecting remote autobiographical memory.
Bayley
Peter J
PJ
University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA.
Hopkins
Ramona O
RO
Squire
Larry R
LR
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000648:Amnesia, Retrograde / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology*