Two tests of auditory recognition memory were given to four patients with b
ilateral hippocampal damage (H+) and three patients with large medial tempo
ral lobe lesions and additional variable damage to lateral temporal cortex
(MTL+). When single stimuli were presented, performance was normal across d
elays as long as 30 sec, presumably because information could be maintained
in working memory through rehearsal. When lists of 10 stimuli were present
ed, performance was impaired after a 5-min delay. Patients with MTL+ lesion
s performed marginally worse than patients with H+ lesions, consistent with
findings for recognition memory in other modalities. The findings show tha
t auditory recognition, like recognition memory in other sensory modalities
, is dependent on the medial temporal lobe.