Elsevier

Neuropsychologia

Volume 33, Issue 1, January 1995, Pages 1-24
Neuropsychologia

Visuo-spatial short-term recognition memory and learning after temporal lobe excisions, frontal lobe excisions or amygdalo-hippocampectomy in man

https://doi.org/10.1016/0028-3932(94)00098-AGet rights and content

Abstract

Three groups of neurosurgical patients with temporal lobe excisions, frontal lobe excisions or unilateral amygdalo-hippocampectomy were assessed on a computerized battery of tasks designed to investigate visuo-spatial short-term recognition memory and learning. A double dissociation is reported between deficits of pattern recognition memory and spatial recognition memory which were observed in the two posterior groups and frontal lobe patients, respectively. In addition, both the temporal lobe and amygdalo-hippocampectomy patients were also impaired on a delayed matching-to-sample paradigm whilst frontal lobe patients performed at an equivalent level to controls. Finally, whilst the impaired performance of the three groups was indistinguishable on a test of paired-associate learning, quite different patterns of deficit were observed on a test of spatial working memory. These results are discussed with reference to recent suggestions that visual recognition memory is mediated by a neural system which includes, as major components, the inferotemporal cortex, the medial temporal lobe structures and particular sectors of the frontal lobe, and are compared to previous findings from patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease and dementia of the Alzheimer type.

References (74)

  • A.M. Owen et al.

    Visuo-spatial memory deficits at different stages of Parkinson's disease

    Neuropsychologia

    (1993)
  • M. Petrides

    Motor conditional associative learning after selective prefrontal lesions in the monkey

    Behav. Brain Res.

    (1982)
  • M. Petrides

    Deficits on conditional associative-learning tasks after frontal and temporal-lobe lesions in man

    Neuropsychologia

    (1985)
  • M. Petrides

    Deficits in non-spatial conditional associative learning after periarcuate lesions in the monkey

    Behav. Brain Res.

    (1985)
  • M. Petrides

    Nonspatial conditional learning impaired in patients with unilateral frontal but not unilateral temporal lobe excisions

    Neuropsychologia

    (1990)
  • M. Petrides et al.

    Deficits on subject-ordered tasks after frontal- and temporal-lobe lesions in man

    Neuropsychologia

    (1982)
  • F.J. Pirozzolo et al.

    Dementia in Parkinson's disease

    A neuropsychological analysis

    Brain Cognit.

    (1982)
  • J.N.P. Rawlins et al.

    The septo-hippocampal system and cognitive mapping

    Behav. Brain Res.

    (1982)
  • J.N.P. Rawlins et al.

    The hippocampus, time and working memory

    Behav. Brain Res.

    (1983)
  • B.J. Sahakian et al.

    Sparing of attentional relative to mnemonic function in a subgroup of patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type

    Neuropsychologia

    (1990)
  • A. Sahgal et al.

    Categorisation and retrieval after selective inferotemporal lesions in monkeys

    Brain Res. Amsterdam

    (1978)
  • A.E. Taylor et al.

    Memory and learning in early Parkinson's disease: “Evidence for a frontal lobe syndrome”

    Brain Cognit.

    (1990)
  • S. Corkin

    Some relationships between global amnesias and the memory impairments in Alzheimer's disease

  • S. Corkin et al.

    Recent advances in the neuropsychological study of Alzheimer's disease

  • A. Cowey et al.

    Effects of foveal prestriate and inferotemporal lesions on visual discrimination by rhesus monkeys

    Exp. Brain Res.

    (1970)
  • M.J. Eacott et al.

    Inferotemporal-frontal disconnection: The uncinate fascicle and visual associative learning in monkeys

    Eur. J. Neurosci.

    (1992)
  • M.A. Falconer

    Anterior temporal lobectomy for epilepsy

  • K.A. Flowers et al.

    Recognition memory in Parkinson's disease

    J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiat.

    (1984)
  • M. Freedman et al.

    Selective delayed response deficit in Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease

    Archs Neurol.

    (1986)
  • S. Funahashi et al.

    Mnemonic coding of visual space in the monkey's dorsolateral prefrontal cortex

    J. Neurophysiol.

    (1989)
  • S. Funahashi et al.

    Visuospatial coding of primate prefrontal neurons revealed by oculomotor paradigms

    J. Neurophysiol.

    (1990)
  • D. Gaffan

    Recognition impaired and association intact in the memory of monkeys after transection of the fornix

    J. comp. Physiol. Psychol.

    (1974)
  • D.C. Garron et al.

    Intellectual functioning of persons with idiopathic Parkinsonism

    J. Nerve. Mental Dis.

    (1972)
  • P.S. Goldman-Rakic

    Cellular and circuit basis of working memory in prefrontal cortex of nonhuman primates

  • J.V. Haxby et al.

    Heterogenous anterior-posterior metabolic patterns in dementia of the Alzheimer type

    J. clin. exp. Neuropsychol.

    (1988)
  • C.F. Jacobsen

    Studies of cerebral function in primates. I. The functions of the frontal association areas in monkeys

    Comp. Psychol. Monog.

    (1936)
  • M. Jones-Gotman et al.

    Neuropsychological testing for localizing and lateralizing the epileptogenic region

  • Cited by (472)

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text