Memory disturbances frequently occur after brain damage, but can be associated with psychiatric illnesses as well. Amnesia--the most severe form of memory impairment--has several variants, including anterograde and retrograde amnesia, material-specific and modality-specific amnesia, and transient global amnesia. We searched databases to obtain an overview of amnesia research from the past 5 yea...

Acute transient amnesia has not been previously associated with vertebral artery dissection. We describe two men with acute onset of dense anterograde amnesia and partial retrograde amnesia resulting from spontaneous vertebral artery dissection. Both amnesic syndromes completely resolved with conservative management.

Two patients with transient global amnesia are reported. Comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation, during the amnesic episode, as well as follow-up examinations on memory were performed. The course of the amnesia was exemplified by two comparable memory tests in different modalities. Partial retrograde amnesia and complete anterograde amnesia were demonstrated during the transient episode. O...

OBJECTIVE Although electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is generally considered effective against depression, it remains controversial because of its association with retrograde memory loss. Here, we assessed memory after ECT in circumstances most likely to yield strong retrograde amnesia. METHOD A cohort of patients undergoing ECT for major depression was tested before and after ECT, and again at...

AIMS To investigate the dynamic time course of transient global amnesia (TGA)--that is, the process of recovery and the interindividual variability--by testing four patients during the day of TGA itself (on three occasions) and at follow up (on two occasions). METHODS A specially designed protocol focusing on semantic (both conceptual and autobiographical knowledge) and episodic (both anterog...

OBJECTIVE Substantial progress has been made in identifying how the treatment parameters used in ECT impact on cognitive side effects. However, there is limited information regarding individual differences in vulnerability to these side effects. The authors examined patients' pretreatment global cognitive status and postictal orientation recovery time as potential predictors of the magnitude of...

Temporal evolution of internal memory states in a terrestrial mollusk, Limax flavus, was studied using cooling-induced retrograde amnesia. The slug was conditioned to avoid carrot odor by temporally correlated presentation of carrot juice and a bitter-taste stimulus of quinidine sulfate. We could induce retrograde amnesia by cooling of the conditioned slug immediately after the training trial. ...

We describe a mathematical model of learning and memory and apply it to the dynamics of forgetting and amnesia. The model is based on the hypothesis that the neural systems involved in memory at different time scales share two fundamental properties: (1) representations in a store decline in strength (2) while trying to induce new representations in higher-level more permanent stores. This pape...

Dissociative amnesia is a condition usually characterized by severely impaired retrograde memory functioning in the absence of structural brain damage. Recent case studies nevertheless found functional brain changes in patients suffering from autobiographical-episodic memory loss in the cause of dissociative amnesia. Functional changes were demonstrated in both resting state and memory retrieva...