DEFICIT OF VERBAL RECALL IN A DORSOLATERA L INFARCT OF THE LEFT THALAMUS

A case of amnesia with preferential disorder of verbal recall associat ed to a limited infarct of the left superior, external and anterior th alamus, is reported This lesion involved the anterior and middle dorso -lateral nuclei and the centrolateral nucleus, sparing most of the str uctures classically incriminated in diencephalic amnesia. Ar the initi al stage, the patient presented discrete language impairment and sever e deficit of semantic processing, which later recovered. At the late s tage, the anterograde and retrograde amnesia principally concerned the recall of verbal information used in daily life verbal learning using short-term and long-term recall, questionnaires evaluating retrograde memory and requiring the evocation of proper names. Verbal priming wa s also affected. Verbal recognition was preserved. Evocation of the mo st recent events of the personal life was also impaired. Confrontation of this case with others previously reported suggests that various th alamic amnesias may be described associated to different cognitive def icits, in relation with the preferential situation of lesions.