Patients with hippocampal amnesia cannot imagine new experiences

Dados Bibliográficos

ID23315397
AutoresDemis Hassabis (0000-0003-2812-9917, Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, United Kingdom; and), Dharshan Kumaran (0000-0001-5995-5264, Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, United Kingdom; and), Seralynne D Vann (0000-0002-6709-8773, Cardiff University), Eleanor A Maguire (0000-0002-9470-6324, Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, United Kingdom; and, autor correspondente)
Ano2007
Volume104
Fascículo5
Páginas1726-1731
Data de publicação2007-01-30
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0027-8424 • E-ISSN: 1091-6490
EditoraNational Academy of Sciences (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1073/pnas.0610561104
PMID17229836
PMCIDPMC1773058
OpenAlexW2114786345
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas120
Referências citadas41

Amnesic patients have a well established deficit in remembering their past experiences. Surprisingly, however, the question as to whether such patients can imagine new experiences has not been formally addressed to our knowledge. We tested whether a group of amnesic patients with primary damage to the hippocampus bilaterally could construct new imagined experiences in response to short verbal cues that outlined a range of simple commonplace scenarios. Our results revealed that patients were markedly impaired relative to matched control subjects at imagining new experiences. Moreover, we identified a possible source for this deficit. The patients' imagined experiences lacked spatial coherence, consisting instead of fragmented images in the absence of a holistic representation of the environmental setting. The hippocampus, therefore, may make a critical contribution to the creation of new experiences by providing the spatial context into which the disparate elements of an experience can be bound. Given how closely imagined experiences match episodic memories, the absence of this function mediated by the hippocampus, may also fundamentally affect the ability to vividly re-experience the past.

Affect (linguistics) · Amnesia · Autobiographical memory · Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Cognitive science · Construct (python library) · Context (archaeology) · Episodic memory · Hippocampal formation · Hippocampus · Recall · Representation (politics) · Communication · Computer Science · History · Identity, Memory, and Therapy · Memory and Neural Mechanisms · Memory Processes and Influences · Neuroscience · Psychology