Aprendizaje de nombres en una paciente con amnesia anterógrada / Names learning in an anterograde amnesic patient

En este trabajo se describe la aplicación de algunas técnicas empleadas para la rehabilitación de la memoria en personas con daño cerebral, con el fin de facilitar el aprendizaje de nombres de personas cercanas y conocidas en una paciente de 55 años, universitaria, diestra y quien como secuela de una encefalitis herpética presentó lesión isquémica en territorio frontotemporal izquierdo y severas alteraciones cognoscitivas y funcionales. Aunque la aplicación combinada de técnicas favorece los procesos de aprendizaje, éstos suelen ser lentos y desgastantes en personas con amnesia severa. No obstante, los resultados apoyan la propuesta de la conservación de la memoria implícita en esta población y favorecen el planteamiento de perspectivas de intervención.

In this work, we describe the application of some techniques used for the memory rehabilitation in people with brain damage, in order to facilitate learning the names of close and known persons in a 55 year old patient, college graduate, right handed, with herpetic encephalitis who presented injury in left frontotemporal region and severe cognitive and functional alterations. As show in the results, of the six names selected for the intervention, it was possible to work with three of them and to obtain significant results in two. Although the mix of techniques favors the learning processes, this process is usually slow in people with severe amnesia. However, these results support the proposal of the implicit memory conservation and favor the intervention from this perspective.

[Tumour of the corpus callosum: the association between interhemispheric disconnection and an anterograde amnesia syndrome]. / Tumor del cuerpo calloso: asociación de la desconexión interhemisférica con un síndrome de amnesia anterógrada.

INTRODUCTION: Sperry, or interhemispheric disconnection, syndrome was reported in patients who had undergone surgical section of the corpus callosum carried out in an attempt to control medication-resistant epilepsy. It has occasionally been linked to tumours of the corpus callosum and, although even more rarely, it has also been associated to an amnesic syndrome. In this paper we report the anatomical and neuropsychological findings in a patient with interhemispheric disconnection syndrome associated to a hippocampal-type amnesic syndrome, caused by a tumour in the splenius of the corpus callosum that extended into the fornix. CASE REPORT: A 52-year-old white male who visited because of loss of memory; on admission to hospital the physical examination revealed a certain degree of asomatognosia with regard to the left-hand side of the body. An axial tomography brain scan showed a dense central lesion in the brain that extended laterally and occluded the body of both lateral ventricles. A biopsy study revealed an undifferentiated astrocytoma that affected the corpus callosum and the fornix. CONCLUSIONS: Sperry, or interhemispheric disconnection, syndrome produced by a tumour in the splenius of the corpus callosum is very likely to course with an amnesic syndrome due to disconnection caused by destruction of the fornix. This association, which characterised our patient's clinical picture, has only previously been described in three cases.

[Musical memory preserved in an amnesic syndrome]. / Preservación de la memoria musical en un síndrome amnésico.

INTRODUCTION: In amnesic syndromes, it's usually to see dissociation between episodic, semantic and procedural memory. However, a few reports have been found about musical memory's processing and the relation with classic memory systems. AIM: To describe the musical's abilities preserved in a patient with amnesic syndrome and discuss possible neuropsychological and neurobiological bases implicated. CASE REPORT: A 28-years-old woman presenting with amnesic syndrome is reported. Following a carbon monoxide encephalophaty and subsequent hypoxia she remained in coma for 10 days with evidence of bilateral temporal changes, mainly affecting basal ganglia areas. The patient showed anterograde amnesia and semantic memory impairment, with disproportionately spared musical abilities' performance, either music perception (discrimination and recognition of tonal melodies, musical sight-reading) or music production (song and instrumental performance) or musical memory. CONCLUSIONS: This case suggests that the music require elaborate bihemispheric processing and may implicate different forms of information processing. The neural network involved in musical memory can be different that the declarative memory systems (episodic and semantic).

Interactions between anandamide-induced anterograde amnesia and post-training memory modulatory systems.

Rats were bilaterally implanted with indwelling cannulae in the CA1 region of the dorsal hippocampus. After recovery from surgery, they were trained in a one-trial, step-down inhibitory avoidance task using a 0.5 mA foot shock. The animals received intrahippocampal infusions of either vehicle or anandamide (100 microM, 0.5 microl/side) 30 min before training. Then, either immediately post-training or 3 h later, they received infusions of saline, noradrenaline (0.5 microg/side), SKF 38393 (1.5 microg/side), oxotremorine (0.6 microg/side) or Sp-cAMPs (0.5 microg/side) also in the hippocampus. All animals were tested for retention 24-h post-training. Anandamide produced anterograde amnesia. Immediate, but not delayed, post-training treatment with Sp-cAMPs and noradrenaline reversed this effect. SKF 38393 and oxotremorine had no influence on the amnesia caused by anandamide either when given immediately or 3 h after training. The results suggest that the amnesic effect of anandamide is related to the known noradrenergic regulation of cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) activity previously described in the hippocampus immediately after avoidance training, which is crucial to long-term memory (LTM) formation.