1. (Miller, Caine, Harding, Thompson, Large & Watson, 2001) Soomi Kim PSYC 260

2. Introduction What is amnesia? Temporary or/and permanent loss of memory. There are two types of amnesia. Anterograde Retrograde

3. Types of Amnesia Anterograde Amnesia Retrograde Amnesia Short term memory loss e.g. black out after excessive alcohol consumption. Long term memory loss e.g. wedding day

4. Hypothesis The right mediodorsal thalamic nucleus and immediately surrounding areas are responsible for central processing mechanisms such as recalling cortically stored memories, which are suggested by McClelland (1994) and Markowitsch (1995).

5. Case Presentation JG is a 33 years old, right-handed, healthy male patient. He has isolated retrograde amnesia caused by right medial thalamic lesion Normal day to day memory Trouble recalling: Autobiographical information Procedure memory Knowledge of famous people and events

6. Case Presentation He said “I don’t remember anything”. He had no memory of where he worked and what he was supposed to do at work.

7. Neurological Findings CT scan showed the patient’s brain is normal. MRI showed that there are three lesions in the patient’s thalamus. Right: More anterior and mediodorsal thalamic nuclei (a) More posterior part of mediodorsal nucleus (b) Left: Posterior part of the mediodorsal nucleus and paraventricular nucleus (c)

8. Neurological Findings Anterior RightLeft Posterior

9. Neuropsychological Assessments

10. JG’s non-autobiographical information “Famous People Test” “Famous Events Test” Results: His performance was at near-chance level when compared with three men without any known neurological disorders. No significant differences between recognizing famous people’s names and faces before and during his life time. He barely remembered any of famous events regardless of time.

11. Neuropsychological Assessments Famous People Test

12. Neuropsychological Assessments Famous Events Test

13. Neuropsychological Assessments

15. Discussion JG’ severe and chronic retrograde amnesia was found to be caused by the recent lesion. Posterior part of the mediodorsal nucleus and paraventricular nucleus (c) JG’s symptoms are due to other related cortical area dysfunctions as well. He had difficulties accessing more distant memories, which are stored in neocortex.

16. Discussion Knowledge of people, events and other unique material differs form other factual knowledge and they are also correlated with personal experiences.

17. Conclusion The results are consistent with McClellend and Markowitsch’s finding that the right mediodorsal thalamic nucleus and the surrounding regions engage in central procession mechanism such as recalling cortically stored memories.

18. My Opinion Strengths Weaknesses It is heuristic It can provide background information for future study. Combined method and result sections make hard to reproduce. Confusing The conclusion is hard to generalize to the entire population.