In article <3f2vh5$2rq at news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de>, heinz at jersey.meb.uni-bonn.de (Heinz Beck) says:
>>>Hi.
>>Does anyone know of case reports in which hippocampal damage restricted to
>or predominantly involving specific subfields has been related to memory
>dysfunction. I am aware of some literature dealing with hippocampal damage
>and memory dysfunction following ischemia or limbic encephalitis. However,
>those studies mostly reported diffuse damage or complete destruction of
>hippocampal structures.
>>Thanks
>Heinz
If you had bothered to look up Medline you would have found the following
reference to a very famous paper:
Zola-Morgan S. Squire LR. Amaral DG:
Human amnesia and the medial temporal region: enduring memory impairment
following a bilateral lesion limited to field CA1 of the hippocampus.
Journal of Neuroscience. 6(10):2950-67, 1986 Oct.
Abstract
During the past 100 years clinical studies of amnesia have linked memory
impairment to damage of the hippocampus. Yet the damage in these cases
has not usually been confined to the hippocampus, and the status of memory
functions has often been based on incomplete neuropsychological information.
Thus, the human cases have until now left some uncertainty as to whether
lesions limited to the hippocampus are sufficient to cause amnesia. Here
we report a case of amnesia in a patient (R.B.) who developed memory
impairment following an ischemic episode. During the 5 years until his
death, R.B. exhibited marked anterograde amnesia, little if any
retrograde amnesia, and showed no signs of cognitive impairment other
than memory. Thorough histological examination revealed a circumscribed
bilateral lesion involving the entire CA1 field of the hippocampus. Minor
pathology was found elsewhere in the brain (e.g., left globus pallidus,
right postcentral gyrus, left internal capsule), but the only damage
that could be reasonably associated with the memory defect was the lesion
in the hippocampus. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of
amnesia following a lesion limited to the hippocampus in which extensive
neuropsychological and neuropathological analyses have been carried out.
Jon Henrik Laake, MD
---------------------------------------------------------------
Anatomical Institute, University of Oslo,
POBox 1105 Blindern,
0317 OSLO, NORWAY
Tel +47 22851176/51150, FAX +47 22851278,
EMail: jon.laake at basalmed.uio.no
