Abstract

Reports the case of a male patient (aged 50+ yrs) who developed a severe and selective amnesia for names and dates associated with events after he suffered cerebral anoxia following heart failure. The Subject's memory abilities were tested using experimental tasks which assessed the recall of autobiographical memories, public events, and the acquisition of newly learned material. 10 age- and education-matched normal controls (mean age 51 yrs) were also tested. The Subject's amnesia was temporally limited, affecting only the last 2 to 3 decades of his life. When recalling an event he was able to evoke both its content and place, while he could not provide any information about people nor the time of its occurrence. His performance on event-memory tests was consistent across the type of material used (personal and public events) or the period of life investigated. Results suggest that knowledge of an episode is specified across multiple representations.