Memory impairments (Lect 9)

Question 1

Patient HM basics:

Answer 1

Henry Molaison

• accident at 7yrs old –> after: severe epilepsy
• profound anterograde memory problems after his surgery
• thought he was 27 years old until he died as an old man

Question 2

Consequences of HMs surgery

Answer 2

1) seizures reduced
2) preserved intelligence (IQ even higher than before)
3) no deficits in perception, abstract thinking, reasoning, motivation
4) immediate and profound memory impairments

Question 3

HM memory impairments

Answer 3

• severe anterograde amnesia

- prior surgery: able to recognize famous faces but not after

Question 4

Procedural memory

Answer 4

able to learn “Procedural skills”

- suggests distinction between declarative (facts etc) and non-declarative (effortless things) and procedural memory

Question 5

HM and the goblins incomplete picture task

Answer 5

Outline drawings of objects, little details given

- HM did not remember doing the test before but still performed better than before

Question 6

HM: critical view of the findings

Answer 6

over attribution of effects to hippocampus
patterns of amnesia were not as impaired as first thought
- could remember some famous names (maybe due to a lot of media presence: O’kane et al 2004)

Question 7

MRI and post mortem evidence

Answer 7

no MRI until 1992, due to worries about clips left in brain after surgery

• cerebellar atrophy
• 5cm MTL lesion instead of 8cm
• some of the hippocampus was still left and not totally removed, however seemed to have severe damage and did not seem to function

Question 8

Re-examining HMs early life memories

Answer 8

semantic (events, facts knowledge) memories seemed intact but not episodic (Autobiographical) memories

Question 9

Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome

Answer 9

consequence of thiamine deficiency due to chronic alcoholism
-severe retrograde amnesia

Patient PZ:

• eminent scientist
• developed it at age 65 due to chronic alcoholism
• wrote autobiography 2 years before syndrome

Question 10

Clive Wearing CW

Answer 10

• talented musician
• probably worst case of amnesia documented
• had herpesviral encephalitis which resulted in a 12 day coma that damaged his brain
• severe AA and RA, but procedural memory intact (piano)
• memory restricted to 30 seconds
• can understand and answer questions
• kos his wife very well, but always acts like he hasn’t seen her in ages
• gets very angry because he doesn’t remember writing a diary

Question 11

Successful living with amnesia

Answer 11

Angie

• head injury resulting in severe AA
• hippocampus intact, may be due to damaged pathways that lead to hippocampus
• found ways of coping: moved away, married, project-manager career, 3 step children
• constructed strategies and tricks to cope: writing lists etc.