Aj. Parkin et Nm. Hunkin, IMPAIRED TEMPORAL CONTEXT MEMORY ON ANTEROGRADE BUT NOT RETROGRADE TESTS IN THE ABSENCE OF FRONTAL PATHOLOGY, Cortex, 29(2), 1993, pp. 267-280
This study examined the memory performance of patient RK who developed
substantial memory impairments due to a hypothalamic glioma but in th
e absence of any evidence of frontal disturbance. RK was evaluated on
both tests of anterograde and retrograde memory for temporal context.
In the first experiment he exhibited marked deficits on a list discrim
ination task even when recognition performance was well within control
range. Experiment 2 confirmed this disproportionate impairment of tem
poral order memory and showed that RK's list discrimination deficit wa
s as severe as that found in alcoholic Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome pat
ients. Experiment 3 showed that RK's temporal discrimination deficit w
as not a general deficit in discrimination because he performed normal
ly on a spatial discrimination test of comparable difficulty to the te
mporal task. Experiment 4 examined RK's memory for deceased famous peo
ple and his ability to indicate the half decade in which they died. RK
's performance was indistinguishable from controls whereas WKS patient
s were extremely impaired. This study adds to the view that frontal da
mage is not a necessary condition for impairment on anterograde measur
es of temporal context memory. However, further evidence from this stu
dy indicates that temporal judgments about pre-existing memories may d
epend on intact frontal lobe functioning.