Syndromes of retrograde amnesia: A conceptual and empirical synthesis

This article attempts a synthesis of the range of disorders that have been subsumed under the rubric of retrograde amnesia. At a functional level, it is possible to make distinctions between various forms of retrograde amnesi a, including a distinction between episodic amnesia for personally experien ced events and semantic retrograde amnesia for components of knowledge, suc h as those relating to people and events. At an anatomical level, discrete lesions to limbic-diencephalic structures usually result in a limited degre e of retrograde amnesia. Marked: episodic or marked semantic retrograde amn esia is usually associated with significant involvement of cortical and neo cortical structures. Retrograde amnesia is a functionally heterogeneous rat her than a unitary phenomenon. Discontinuities and dissociations found in p ublished studies point to the potential fractionation of retrograde amnesia into component disorders, each with its own neural profile.