Brain, Vol. 113, No. 6, 1695-1706, 1990
© 1990 Guarantors of Brain
research-article |
THE ROLE OF DIENCEPHALIC PATHOLOGY IN HUMAN MEMORY DISORDER
EVIDENCE FROM A PENETRATING PARANASAL BRAIN INJURY
1Royal Victoria Hospital Belfast 2Wessex Neurological Centre Southampton 3Churchill Clinic London, UK
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to: Dr N. Kapur, Wessex Neurological Centre, General Hospital, Southampton SO9 4XY, UK.
A patient (B.J.) is reported who developed severe memory impairment following a penetrating brain injury caused by a snooker cue which entered through his left nostril into the basal regions of the brian. Initially, his memory disorder had the clinical features of a dense amnesic syndrome, with both anterograde and retrograde amnesia, but B.J. subsequently showed significant recovery of memory function. Formal memory testing was carried out 21 months after injury. This demonstrated marked verbal memory impairment, as severe as that seen in patients with the amnesic syndrome. On nonverbal memory tests, his impairment was relatively mild and patchy. His retrograde amnesia had regressed mainly to affect a 6 month period before the injury. On other cognitive tasks, he performed at an average or above average level, and there was no neuropsychological evidence of frontal lobe dysfunction. Neuroradiological investigations at various stages after his injury failed to demonstrate a lesion in any of the thalamic nuclei. Magnetic resonance imaging showed a lesion in the hypothalamus in the region of the mamillary bodies. Our study demonstrates that marked, relatively focal, memory disorder after diencephalic injury can occur without direct pathology to the body of the thalamus. It also indicates that structures in or adjacent to the hypothalamus, such as the mamillary bodies, may play a more important role in human memory functioning than has hitherto been considered.
Received April 5, 1989. Revised November 20, 1989. Accepted December 12, 1989.
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  S. D. Vann, D. Tsivilis, C. E. Denby, J. R. Quamme, A. P. Yonelinas, J. P. Aggleton, D. Montaldi, and A. R. Mayes Impaired recollection but spared familiarity in patients with extended hippocampal system damage revealed by 3 convergent methods PNAS, March 31, 2009; 106(13): 5442 - 5447. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 R. C. Kupers, A. Fortin, J. Astrup, A. Gjedde, and M. Ptito Recovery of Anterograde Amnesia in a Case of Craniopharyngioma Arch Neurol, December 1, 2004; 61(12): 1948 - 1952. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 S. D. Vann and J. P. Aggleton Evidence of a Spatial Encoding Deficit in Rats with Lesions of the Mammillary Bodies or Mammillothalamic Tract J. Neurosci., April 15, 2003; 23(8): 3506 - 3514. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 M. D. Kopelman Disorders of memory Brain, October 1, 2002; 125(10): 2152 - 2190. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 R. Ptak, B. Birtoli, H. Imboden, C. Hauser, J. Weis, and A. Schnider Hypothalamic amnesia with spontaneous confabulations: A clinicopathologic study Neurology, June 12, 2001; 56(11): 1597 - 1600. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. P. Aggleton, D. McMackin, K. Carpenter, J. Hornak, N. Kapur, S. Halpin, C. M. Wiles, H. Kamel, P. Brennan, S. Carton, et al. Differential cognitive effects of colloid cysts in the third ventricle that spare or compromise the fornix Brain, April 1, 2000; 123(4): 800 - 815. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
A. Harding, G. Halliday, D. Caine, and J. Kril Degeneration of anterior thalamic nuclei differentiates alcoholics with amnesia Brain, January 1, 2000; 123(1): 141 - 154. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|