title: Dissociation between recall and recognition memory performance in an amnesic patient with hippocampal damage following carbon monoxide poisoning.
abstract: Some patients with relatively selective hippocampal damage have shown proportionate recall and recognition deficits. Moreover, familiarity as well as recollection have been found to be impaired in some of these patients. In contrast, other patients with apparently similar damage presented with relatively preserved recognition despite having severely impaired recall, and some of these patients have been shown to have preserved familiarity. We report here the case of an amnesic patient who suffered bilateral hippocampal damage and temporoparietal atrophy after carbon monoxide poisoning. On tests matched for difficulty, his recall performance was more severely impaired than his recognition memory, for verbal as well as for visual materials. Moreover, he performed within the range of healthy matched subjects on nine recognition tests out of ten. In a task using the process dissociation procedure, the patient's familiarity was preserved although his recollection was impaired. These findings indicate that recall and recognition memory can be dissociated in amnesic patients with hippocampal lesions even when temporoparietal cortical atrophy is also present.
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Psychopathology Unit, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bastin
authors.forename: Martial
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Linden
authors.forename: Annik
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Charnallet
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Denby
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Montaldi
authors.forename: Neil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: Mayes
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Andrew
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000647:Amnesia / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D002249:Carbon Monoxide Poisoning / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000293:injuries* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*