title: Accelerated forgetting of contextual details due to focal medio-dorsal thalamic lesion.
abstract: Effects of thalamic nuclei damage and related white matter tracts on memory performance are still debated. This is particularly evident for the medio-dorsal thalamus which has been less clear in predicting amnesia than anterior thalamus changes. The current study addresses this issue by assessing 7 thalamic stroke patients with consistent unilateral lesions focal to the left medio-dorsal nuclei for immediate and delayed memory performance on standard visual and verbal tests of anterograde memory, and over the long-term (>24 h) on an object-location associative memory task. Thalamic patients showed selective impairment to delayed recall, but intact recognition memory. Patients also showed accelerated forgetting of contextual details after a 24 h delay, compared to controls. Importantly, the mammillothalamic tract was intact in all patients, which suggests a role for the medio-dorsal nuclei in recall and early consolidation memory processes.
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Research Australia, School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales Sydney, NSW, Australia ; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Sicong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tu
authors.affiliation: Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders Sydney, NSW, Australia ; Central Clinical School, Neuropsychology Unit, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, University of Sydney Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Laurie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Research Australia, School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales Sydney, NSW, Australia ; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Piguet
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Research Australia, School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales Sydney, NSW, Australia ; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders Sydney, NSW, Australia ; Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hornberger
keywords: MRI; anterograde memory; mammillothalamic tract; stroke; thalamus