Lateralized-temporal-lobe-lesion effects on learning and memory: examining the contributions of stimulus novelty and presentation mode

Previous studies have attributed poor memory for words after left temporal lobectomy (LTL) to a verbal memory deficit and poor memory for abstract designs after right temporal lobectomy (RTL) to a difficulty in remembering nonverbal/visual stimuli. In this investigation, the contribution of stimulus novelty to lateralised-lesion-effects was evaluated by testing list learning in 11 LTL, 8 RTL and 14 normal control subjects, using four types of material (familiar verbal, novel verbal, familiar designs and novel designs). In addition, the effect of presentation modality (spoken vs. written) on word-list learning was examined. We found that novelty enhanced material-specific-side-of lesion effects and that the LTL group had greater difficulty in learning spoken than written words.     

Memory formation, amnesia, improved memory and reversed amnesia: 5-HT role

Traditionally, the search for memory circuits has been focused on examinations of amnesic and AD patients, cerebral lesions and neuroimaging. A complementary alternative has become the use of autoradiography with radioligands, aiming to identify neurobiological markers associated with memory formation, amnesia states and (more recently) recovery from memory deficits. Indeed, ex vivo autoradiographic studies offer the advantage of detecting functionally active receptors altered by pharmacological tools during memory formation, amnesia states and memory recovery. Moreover, serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) systems have become a pharmacological and genetic target in the treatment of memory disorders. Herein evidence from studies involving expression of 5-HT(1A), 5-HT(2A), 5-HT(4), and 5-HT(6) receptors in memory formation, amnesia conditions (e.g., pharmacological models or aging) and recovery of memory is reviewed. Thus, specific 5-HT receptors were expressed in trained animals relative to untrained in brain areas such as cortex, hippocampus and amygdala. However, relative to the control group, rats showing amnesia or recovered memory, showed in the hippocampus, region where explicit memory is formed, a complex pattern of 5-HT receptor expression. An intermediate expression occurred in amygdala, septum and some cortical areas in charge of explicit memory storage. Even in brain areas thought to be in charge of procedural memory such as basal ganglia, animals showing recovered memory displayed an intermediate expression, while amnesic groups, depending on the pharmacological amnesia model, showed up- or down-regulation. In conclusion, evidence indicates that autoradiography, by using specific radioligands, offers excellent opportunities to map dynamic changes in brain areas engaged in these cognitive processes. The 5-HT modulatory role strengthens or suppresses memory is critically depend on the timing of the memory formation.     

Working memory and semantic involvement in sentence processing: a case of pure progressive amnesia

ED, a 83-year-old woman, meets the criteria of pure progressive amnesia, with gradual impairment of episodic and autobiographical memory, sparing of semantic processing and strong working memory (WM) deficit. The dissociation between disturbed WM and spared semantic processing permitted testing the role of WM in processing anaphors like pronouns or repeated names. Results showed a globally normal anaphoric behavior in two experiments requiring anaphoric processing in sentence production and comprehension. We suggest that preserved semantic processing in ED would have compensated for working memory deficit in anaphoric processing.     

Working memory and long-term memory for faces: Evidence from fMRI and global amnesia for involvement of the medial temporal lobes

Behavioral studies with amnesic patients and imaging studies with healthy adults have suggested that medial temporal lobe (MTL) structures known to be essential for long-term declarative memory (LTM) may also be involved in the maintenance of information in working memory (WM). To examine whether MTL structures are involved in WM maintenance for faces, and the nature of that involvement, WM and LTM for faces were examined in normal participants via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and in amnesic patients behaviorally. In Experiment 1, participants were scanned while performing a WM task in which they determined if two novel faces, presented 7 s apart, were the same or different. Later, participants' LTM for the faces they saw during the WM task was measured in an unexpected recognition test. During WM maintenance, the hippocampus was activated bilaterally, and there was greater activation during maintenance for faces that were later remembered than faces later forgotten. A conjunction analysis revealed overlap in hippocampal activations across WM maintenance and LTM contrasts, which suggested that the same regions were recruited for WM maintenance and LTM encoding. In Experiment 2, amnesic and control participants were tested on similar WM and LTM tasks. Amnesic patients, as a group, had intact performance with a 1-s maintenance period, but were impaired after a 7-s WM maintenance period and on the LTM task. Thus, parallel neuroimaging and lesion designs suggest that the same hippocampal processes support WM maintenance, for intervals as short as 7 s, and LTM for faces.     

Episodic memory,semantic memory,and amnesia

Episodic memory and semantic memory are two types of declarative memory. There have been two principal views about how this distinction might be reflected in the organization of memory functions in the brain. One view, that episodic memory and semantic memory are both dependent on the integrity of medial temporal lobe and midline diencephalic structures, predicts that amnesic patients with medial temporal lobe/diencephalic damage should be proportionately impaired in both episodic and semantic memory. An alternative view is that the capacity for semantic memory is spared, or partially spared, in amnesia relative to episodic memory ability. This article reviews two kinds of relevant data: 1) case studies where amnesia has occurred early in childhood, before much of an individual's semantic knowledge has been acquired, and 2) experimental studies with amnesic patients of fact and event learning, remembering and knowing, and remote memory. The data provide no compelling support for the view that episodic and semantic memory are affected differently in medial temporal lobe/diencephalic amnesia. However, episodic and semantic memory may be dissociable in those amnesic patients who additionally have severe frontal lobe damage. Hippocampus 1998;8:205–211. Published 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

1 This article is a US Government work and, as such, is in the public domain in the United States of America.

     

Retrograde amnesia and remote memory impairment

The status of remote memory in case N.A., patients receiving bilateral ECT, and patients with Korsakoff syndrome was assessed using seven different tests. The extent and pattern of remote memory impairment depended upon the etiology of amnesia, appearing as a relatively brief retrograde amnesia for N.A. and patients receiving ECT and as an extensive impairment covering many decades for patients with Korsakoff syndrome. Differences in remote memory impairment could not be explained by differences in the severity of anterograde amnesia, indicating that amnesia is not a unitary disorder. We suggest that brief retrograde amnesia is typically present whenever amnesia occurs and that extensive remote memory impairment is a distinct entity related to superimposed cognitive deficits. These ideas and a review of previous studies lead to a comprehensive proposal for understanding retrograde amnesia and remote memory impairment.     

Cortical cholinergic activity is related to the novelty of the stimulus

A number of studies have related cholinergic activity to the mediation of learning and memory. However, the acetylcholine (ACh) participation has been recently implicated in the early stages of memory formation but not during retrieval. The aim of the present study is to evaluate ACh release in the insular cortex (IC) during presentation of different taste stimuli and during their re-exposition by means of the free-moving microdialysis technique. We evaluated the changes in ACh release when a novel taste, saccharin or quinine was presented to the rat and after several presentations of saccharin. Unilateral microdialysis was performed in the IC 1 h before and 1 h after the presentation of: (1) a familiar stimulus (water), (2) a novel taste (quinine), (3) another novel taste (saccharin), (4) a second presentation, (5) a third presentation, and (6) a fourth presentation of saccharin. The volume consumed by the animals was registered as a behavioral parameter. The ACh levels from the microdialysis fractions were analyzed by an HPLC-ED system. Biochemical results showed a significant increment in the cortical ACh release induced by a novel stimulus compared with the release observed during the presentation of a familiar stimulus. The ACh release observed after several presentations of the stimuli decreased to the same levels as those produced by the familiar taste, indicating an inverse relationship between familiarity and cortical ACh release. These results suggest that the cholinergic system plays an important role in the identification and characterization of different kinds of stimuli.     

TraceLink: A model of amnesia and consolidation of memory

A model of amnesia is introduced, called TraceLink, that consists of three systems: 1) a trace system (neocortex), 2) a link system (hippocampus), and 3) a modulatory system (hippocampus/fornix/basal forebrain). It aims to explain salient aspects of the neuropsychology of amnesia, such as Ribot gradients in retrograde amnesia, patterns of dissociation between anterograde and retrograde amnesia, recovery from amnesia, and a newly discovered form of amnesia (semantic dementia) that results from certain temporal lobe lesions that do not affect the hippocampus. The model, furthermore, offers a new explanation for the global neuroanatomy of the hippocampus and neocortex based on the assumption that the brain aims to minimize connectivity volume. It also offers various strategies for the consolidation of memory, the effects of which are explored in computer simulations. The paper concludes with ten, largely untested, predictions derived from the TraceLink model. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

A neuropsychological analysis of memory and amnesia

Drawing on neuropsychological studies of amnesic patients, cognitive studies of normal individuals, and functional neuroimaging research, this article reviews recent developments in our understanding of the cognitive and neural bases of various forms of memory. This knowledge provides a foundation for a discussion of the clinical analysis of memory disorders. Different etiologies of selective memory impairment commonly seen in neurological practice are reviewed, followed by an overview of the clinical evaluation of memory disorders. In the evaluation of memory deficits, emphasis is placed on the identification of specific processing deficits that can be linked to underlying neuropathology.     

Working memory for emotional facial expressions: role of the estrogen in young women

Physiological hormonal fluctuations during the menstrual cycle, postpartum, and menopause have been implicated in the modulation of mood, cognition, and affective disorders. Taking into account that women's performance in memory tasks can also fluctuate with circulating hormones levels across the menstrual cycle, the cognitive performance in a working memory task for emotional facial expressions, using the six basic emotions as stimuli in the delayed matching-to-sample, was evaluated in young women in different phases of the menstrual cycle. Our findings suggest that high levels of estradiol in the follicular phase could have a negative effect on delayed matching-to-sample working memory task, using stimuli with emotional valence. Moreover, in the follicular phase, compared to the menstrual phase, the percent of errors was significantly higher for the emotional facial expressions of sadness and disgust. The evaluation of the response times (time employed to answer) for each facial expression with emotional valence showed a significant difference between follicular and luteal in reference to the emotional facial expression of sadness. Our results show that high levels of estradiol in the follicular phase could impair the performance of working memory. However, this effect is specific to selective facial expressions suggesting that, across the phases of the menstrual cycle, in which conception risk is high, women could give less importance to the recognition of the emotional facial expressions of sadness and disgust. This study is in agreement with research conducted on non-human primates, showing that fluctuations of ovarian hormones across the menstrual cycle influence a variety of social and cognitive behaviors. Moreover, our data could also represent a useful tool for investigating emotional disturbances linked to menstrual cycle phases and menopause in women.     

Prose recall and amnesia: implications for the structure of working memory

Two densely amnesic patients are shown to have good immediate but poor delayed prose recall, a result that presents problems for the current multi-component model of working memory. Examination of a wide sample of memory impaired patients suggests that this pattern occurs in densely amnesic patients who have well-preserved intelligence and good executive capacities. Patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease typically show poor immediate and delayed prose recall, reflecting their combined intellectual and memory deficits. The results are interpreted in terms of a proposed new component of working memory, the episodic buffer.     

Long-term memory following transient global amnesia: an investigation of episodic and semantic memory

BACKGROUND: Several studies noted persistence of memory impairment following an episode of transient global amnesia (TGA) with standard tests. AIM: To specify long-term memory impairments in a group of patients selected with stringent criteria. METHODS: Both retrograde and anterograde memory were investigated in 32 patients 13-67 months after a TGA episode with original tasks encompassing retrograde semantic memory (academic, public and personal knowledge), retrograde episodic memory (autobiographical events) and anterograde episodic memory. RESULTS: Patients had preserved academic and public knowledge. Pathological scores were obtained in personal verbal fluency for the two most recent periods, and patients produced less autobiographical events than controls. However, when they were provided time to detail, memories were as episodic as in controls regardless of their remoteness. Anterograde episodic tasks revealed a mild but significant impairment of the capacity of re-living the condition of encoding, i.e. the moment at which words were presented. CONCLUSIONS: Patients who have suffered from an episode of TGA manifest deficits of memory focused on the retrieval of both recent semantic information and episodic memories and especially the capacity of re-living. These deficits may not result from a deterioration of memory per se but rather from difficulties in accessing memories.     

Working memory and the hippocampus

A number of studies suggest an important role for the hippocampus in tasks involving visuospatial or relational working memory. We test the generality of this proposal across tasks using a battery designed to investigate the various components of working memory, studying the working memory performance of Jon, who shows a bilateral reduction in hippocampal volume of approximately 50%, comparing him to a group of 48 college students. We measure performance on four complex working memory span measures based on combining visuospatial and verbal storage with visuospatial or verbal concurrent processing as well as measuring Jon's ability to carry out the component storage and processing aspects of these tasks. Jon performed at a consistently high level across our range of tasks. Possible reasons for the apparent disparity between our own findings and earlier studies showing a hippocampal deficit are discussed in terms of both the potential differences in the demands placed on relational memory and of the proposed distinction between egocentric and allocentric visuospatial processing.     

Anterograde amnesia and memory for temporal order

Because amnesic patients have great difficulty remembering the order in which events occur, anterograde amnesia has sometimes been considered to be a selective defect in this ability. The present study showed that temporal order information is fragile in normal subjects to the same extent as it is in amnesic patients. It is suggested that in many respects amnesic patients qualitatively resemble normal subjects tested long after learning.     

Visual memory loss and autobiographical amnesia: a case study

Amnesia typically results from trauma to the medial temporal regions that coordinate activation among the disparate areas of cortex that represent the information that make up autobiographical memories. We proposed that amnesia should also result from damage to these regions, particularly regions that subserve long-term visual memory [Rubin, D. C., & Greenberg, D. L. (1998). Visual memory-deficit amnesia: A distinct amnesic presentation and etiology. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 95, 5413-5416]. We previously found 11 such cases in the literature, and all 11 had amnesia. We now present a detailed investigation of one of these patients. M.S. suffers from long-term visual memory loss along with some semantic deficits; he also manifests a severe retrograde amnesia and moderate anterograde amnesia. The presentation of his amnesia differs from that of the typical medial-temporal or lateral-temporal amnesic; we suggest that his visual deficits may be contributing to his autobiographical amnesia.     

Autobiographical memory and amnesia: Using conceptual knowledge to ground the self

A case of retrograde amnesia, PJM, elucidated the relationship between self, episodic memory and autobiographical knowledge. Results from a variety of measures including the I Am Memory Task (IAM Task), where memories are cued by self-generated self concepts, demonstrate that PJM has a coherent, continuous sense of self, despite having lost episodic memories for an 18-month period. Her use of conceptual autobiographical knowledge, in episodic tasks and to support aspects of identity, shows how autobiographical knowledge can support the self when episodic memories are inaccessible. These results are discussed with relation to current neuropsychological models of self and memory.     

Self-ratings of memory dysfunction: different findings in depression and amnesia

An 18-item self-rating test of memory functions was administered to two patient groups: seven patients with amnesia resulting from Korsakoff's syndrome and six other amnesic patients. These results were compared to results obtained previously for depressed psychiatric inpatients (n = 19) and depressed inpatients prescribed electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) (n = 35). The latter group was tested both before and 1 week after completion of the course of ECT. One pattern of memory self-ratings was reported by the two groups of depressed patients. These two groups reported an approximately equivalent level of impairment across all test items. A different pattern of memory self-ratings was reported by the two groups of amnesic patients and by the group tested after ECT. These patients reported considerably more impairment on some items than others, such that performance was not equivalent across test items. Finally, the patients with Korsakoff's syndrome underestimated their memory problems, reporting a less severe impairment than the other amnesic patients. The results show that the memory problems experienced in depression and in amnesia are distinguishable with self-assessment techniques. In addition, the similarity between memory self-ratings reported by patients after ECT and by amnesic patients supports the idea that memory complaints after ECT reflect primarily the experience of amnesia. Self-rating forms like the one described here may have useful application to many diagnostic groups where questions arise about the nature of reported memory problems.     

Age-related changes in the electrophysiological response to visual stimulus novelty: A topographical approach

The relationship of task relevance and stimulus probability to P300 morphology, latency and distribution was assessed. Eight year olds and adults completed visual oddball tasks of recognition memory with frequent non-target (60%), infrequent target (20%), and infrequent novel (20%) stimuli. Stimuli consisted of 2 female faces posing neutral expressions, and 40 trial unique novel photographs depicting scenes, animals, objects or abstract patterns. Event-related potentials were recorded from 17 electrodes over frontal, central and parietal scalp, including lateral temporal sites. All stimuli elicited P300 responses at parietal electrodes, with the largest responses to the target stimuli (relevant and infrequent). The P300 responses of adults and children were morphologically dissimilar, with children showing broader peaks and latency shifts across electrodes. In addition, the eight year olds displayed a frontal negativity to novel stimuli which was absent in the responses of adult participants. Results suggest that different anatomical or functional circuitry may be involved in the processing of novelty for adults as compared to eight year olds.