Verbal memory disorders provoked by various cortical strokes

In recent years a consensus has been reached about the neuroanatomical subs trate of verbal memory, but this state of knowledge has not yet been implem ented in clinical practice. One reason for this may be that most of the neu roscientific studies on verbal memory used different neuropsychological ins truments and that only a small set of patient groups with the same etiology but different lesion sites were analysed. Returning to three earlier studi es, we analyse the possibility to make differential judgements on the verba l memory impairments of four different patient groups by using the Californ ia Verbal Learning Test (CVLT). We compare patients with left-sided (n=16) and right-sided (n=10) posterior cerebral artery infarcts and patients with infarcts of the left (n=10) or right (n = 21) frontal lobe, and we integra ted data about their retention errors that had not been analysed so far. Ou r findings reveal significant differences between these patient groups, con cerning the quantitative aspects of impairments, and also the profiles of m emory errors (recall, interference and perseverations). Our study documents a relation between the site of the lesion and the type of verbal memory im pairment, agreeing with some of the most recent neuroscientific findings. S tarting from this observation we try to define a neuropsychological pattern of memory impairment which enables differential clinical diagnoses using t he CVLT as a memory test.