Learning and remembering real-world events after medial temporal lobe damage.
The hippocampus is important for autobiographical memory, but its role is unclear. In the study, patients with hippocampal damage and controls were taken on a 25-min walk on the University of California, San Diego, campus during which 11 planned events occurred. Memory was tested directly after the walk. In addition, a second group of controls took the same walk and were tested after 1 mo. Patients with hippocampal damage remembered fewer details than controls tested directly after the walk but remembered a similar number of details as controls tested after 1 mo. Notably, the details that were reported by patients had the characteristics of episodic recollection and included references to particular places and events. Patients exhibited no special difficulty remembering spatial details in comparison with nonspatial details. Last, whereas both control groups tended to recall the events of the walk in chronological order, the order in which patients recalled the events was unrelated to the order in which they occurred. The findings illuminate the role of the hippocampus in autobiographical memory and in the spatial and nonspatial aspects of episodic recollection.
Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA 92161.|Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093.
Adam J O
AJ
Dede
Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA 92161.|Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093.
Jennifer C
JC
Frascino
Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093.
John T
JT
Wixted
Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA 92161; lsquire@ucsd.edu.|Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093.|Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093.|Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093.
Larry R
LR
Squire
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016138:Walking
autobiographical memory; hippocampus; prospective memory