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Papers by Michael Kopelman
The journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 2014
Amnesia for violent offenses is common, but little is known about underlying causes or whether me... more Amnesia for violent offenses is common, but little is known about underlying causes or whether memory can recover. In this study, 50 violent offenders were interviewed with neuropsychological and psychometric measures, to determine the factors that underlie amnesia and the recovery of memory in these cases. The results showed that amnesia for a violent offense was associated with crimes of passion and dissociative symptoms at the time, but not with impaired neuropsychological functioning. Long amnesic gaps were associated with a state of dissociation surrounding the offense and with previous blackouts (whether alcoholic or dissociative). Memory often recovered, either partially or completely, especially where there was a history of blackouts or a lengthy amnesic gap. Brief amnesic gaps were likely to persist, perhaps as a consequence of faulty encoding during a period of extreme emotional arousal (or red-out).
Neuropsychologia, Jan 22, 2014
We present two patients in whom the combination of lesion site and cognitive performance was uniq... more We present two patients in whom the combination of lesion site and cognitive performance was uniquely informative about the organisation and functional anatomy of semantic memory. One had had a single lobar stroke with an unusual distribution, largely destroying the whole of the left temporal lobe ventral to the superior temporal sulcus. The other patient had had herpes simplex encephalitis with destruction that was confined to the left cerebral hemisphere. The lesion again mainly encompassed the left temporal lobe, but also extended to the left inferior frontal gyrus. Cognitive outcomes in the two patients were compared with each other and with published results from patients with semantic dementia. This is because, whereas the majority of semantic dementia patients present with more prominent atrophy of the left rostroventral temporal lobe, they invariably have a degree of atrophy in the mirror region on the right that progresses. Semantic dementia therefore provides no clear evid...
Nature neuroscience, 2001
In standard models, word meanings contribute to reading words aloud and writing them to dictation... more In standard models, word meanings contribute to reading words aloud and writing them to dictation. It is known that categories of knowledge and the associated word meanings can be spared or impaired selectively, but it has not been possible to demonstrate that category-specific effects apply to reading and writing. Here we report the case of a neurodegenerative patient with selectively spared numerical abilities whose brain damage left him able to read and write only number words.
Neuropsychologia, 1997
Patients with focal frontal, temporal lobe, or diencephalic lesions were investigated on measures... more Patients with focal frontal, temporal lobe, or diencephalic lesions were investigated on measures of temporal (recency) and spatial (position) context memory, after manipulating exposure times to match recognition memory for targets (pictorial stimuli) as closely as possible. Patients with diencephalic lesions from an alcoholic Korsak off syndrome showed significant impairment on the temporal context (recency) task, as did patients with
Neuropsychologia, 1999
Patients with focal diencephalic, temporal lobe, or frontal lobe lesions were examinedon various ... more Patients with focal diencephalic, temporal lobe, or frontal lobe lesions were examinedon various measures of remote memory. Korsakoff patients showed a severe impairment with acharacteristic temporal gradient, whereas two patients with focal diencephalic damage (andanterograde amnesia) were virtually unimpaired on remote memory measures. Patients withfrontal lobe pathology were severely impaired in the recall of autobiographical incidents andfamous news events. Patients
Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 2014
Anosognosia for hemiplegia (AHP), or unawareness of motor deficits contralateral to a brain lesio... more Anosognosia for hemiplegia (AHP), or unawareness of motor deficits contralateral to a brain lesion, has lasting negative implications for the management and rehabilitation of patients. A recent, bedside psychophysical intervention, namely self-observation by video replay, lead to a lasting remission of severe AHP in an acute stroke patient (Fotopoulou, A., Rudd, A., Holmes, P., & Kopelman, M. ( 2009 ). Self-observation reinstates motor awareness in anosognosia for hemiplegia. Neuropsychologia, 47, 1256-1260). This procedure has been adjusted and applied here, as the basis of two intervention protocols administered independently to two patients with severe AHP. The first study used multiple, successive sessions of video-based self-observation in an acute patient, targeting first the awareness of upper limb and subsequently lower limb paralysis. The second study used a single session of video-based, self- and other-observation in a patient at the chronic stage following onset. Both protocols also involved elements of rapport building and emotional support. The results revealed that video-based self-observation had dramatic, immediate effects on awareness in both acute and chronic stages and it seemed to act as an initial trigger for eventual symptom remission. Nevertheless, these effects did not automatically generalise to all functional domains. This study provides provisional support that video-based self-observation may be included in wider rehabilitation programmes for the management and restoration of anosognosia.
Transfusion Medicine, 2008
Hippocampus, 2003
There are many controversies concerning the structural basis of retrograde amnesia (RA). One view... more There are many controversies concerning the structural basis of retrograde amnesia (RA). One view is that memories are held briefly within a medial temporal store ("hippocampal complex") before being "consolidated" or reorganised within temporal neocortex and/or networks more widely distributed within the cerebral cortex. An alternative view is that the medial temporal lobes are always involved in the storage and retrieval (reactivation) of autobiographical memories (multiple trace theory). The present study used quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 40 patients with focal pathology/volume loss in different sites, to examine the correlates of impairment on three different measures of RA. The findings supported the view that widespread neural networks are involved in the storage and retrieval of autobiographical and other remote memories. Brain volume measures in critical structures could account for 60% of variance on autobiographical memory measures (for incidents and facts) in diencephalic patients and for 60-68% of variance in patients with frontal lesions. Significant correlations with medial temporal lobe volume were found only in the diencephalic group, in whom they were thought to reflect thalamic changes, but not in patients with herpes encephalitis or hypoxia in whom the temporal lobes were particularly implicated. The latter finding fails to support one of the main predictions of multiple trace theory, as presently expounded.
![Research paper thumbnail of Corrigendum to “Knowing you care: Effects of perceived empathy and attachment style on pain perception” [Pain 151 (2010) 687–683]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/42448863/thumbnails/1.jpg)
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Occupational Medicine, 2008
Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 2008
Profound loss of awareness for the past in amnesia has implications for our understanding of memo... more Profound loss of awareness for the past in amnesia has implications for our understanding of memory and belief systems, and how they may become disrupted in neurological conditions. We report the case of CW, a professional musician who became severely amnesic in 1985 following herpes simplex viral encephalitis (HSVE) at the age of 46 years. For many years CW stated several times a day that he had just woken up. He frequently wrote this in his diary too. When shown examples of his diary entries or videos of himself playing or conducting music, he recognised both his handwriting and himself on the video screen but stated vehemently that he "was not conscious then". In a previous paper (Wilson, Baddeley, & Kapur 1995), it was suggested that this lack of awareness for the past was a delusion, defined as a strongly held belief in the face of contradictory evidence (rather than implying any kind of psychiatric disorder per se). As a contribution to the academic debate regarding theories of "self", in the present paper we will review this explanation of CW's state as it had been in those early years, and we will also consider two other possibilities - namely, that CW had suffered from a loss of "autobiographical self" or "extended consciousness" (see Damasio, 2000, pp. 198-199), and that his verbal reports simply reflected a form of coping strategy to help him deal with the limited evidence he had available in "declarative" memory.
The journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 2014
Amnesia for violent offenses is common, but little is known about underlying causes or whether me... more Amnesia for violent offenses is common, but little is known about underlying causes or whether memory can recover. In this study, 50 violent offenders were interviewed with neuropsychological and psychometric measures, to determine the factors that underlie amnesia and the recovery of memory in these cases. The results showed that amnesia for a violent offense was associated with crimes of passion and dissociative symptoms at the time, but not with impaired neuropsychological functioning. Long amnesic gaps were associated with a state of dissociation surrounding the offense and with previous blackouts (whether alcoholic or dissociative). Memory often recovered, either partially or completely, especially where there was a history of blackouts or a lengthy amnesic gap. Brief amnesic gaps were likely to persist, perhaps as a consequence of faulty encoding during a period of extreme emotional arousal (or red-out).
Neuropsychologia, Jan 22, 2014
We present two patients in whom the combination of lesion site and cognitive performance was uniq... more We present two patients in whom the combination of lesion site and cognitive performance was uniquely informative about the organisation and functional anatomy of semantic memory. One had had a single lobar stroke with an unusual distribution, largely destroying the whole of the left temporal lobe ventral to the superior temporal sulcus. The other patient had had herpes simplex encephalitis with destruction that was confined to the left cerebral hemisphere. The lesion again mainly encompassed the left temporal lobe, but also extended to the left inferior frontal gyrus. Cognitive outcomes in the two patients were compared with each other and with published results from patients with semantic dementia. This is because, whereas the majority of semantic dementia patients present with more prominent atrophy of the left rostroventral temporal lobe, they invariably have a degree of atrophy in the mirror region on the right that progresses. Semantic dementia therefore provides no clear evid...
Nature neuroscience, 2001
In standard models, word meanings contribute to reading words aloud and writing them to dictation... more In standard models, word meanings contribute to reading words aloud and writing them to dictation. It is known that categories of knowledge and the associated word meanings can be spared or impaired selectively, but it has not been possible to demonstrate that category-specific effects apply to reading and writing. Here we report the case of a neurodegenerative patient with selectively spared numerical abilities whose brain damage left him able to read and write only number words.
Neuropsychologia, 1997
Patients with focal frontal, temporal lobe, or diencephalic lesions were investigated on measures... more Patients with focal frontal, temporal lobe, or diencephalic lesions were investigated on measures of temporal (recency) and spatial (position) context memory, after manipulating exposure times to match recognition memory for targets (pictorial stimuli) as closely as possible. Patients with diencephalic lesions from an alcoholic Korsak off syndrome showed significant impairment on the temporal context (recency) task, as did patients with
Neuropsychologia, 1999
Patients with focal diencephalic, temporal lobe, or frontal lobe lesions were examinedon various ... more Patients with focal diencephalic, temporal lobe, or frontal lobe lesions were examinedon various measures of remote memory. Korsakoff patients showed a severe impairment with acharacteristic temporal gradient, whereas two patients with focal diencephalic damage (andanterograde amnesia) were virtually unimpaired on remote memory measures. Patients withfrontal lobe pathology were severely impaired in the recall of autobiographical incidents andfamous news events. Patients
Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 2014
Anosognosia for hemiplegia (AHP), or unawareness of motor deficits contralateral to a brain lesio... more Anosognosia for hemiplegia (AHP), or unawareness of motor deficits contralateral to a brain lesion, has lasting negative implications for the management and rehabilitation of patients. A recent, bedside psychophysical intervention, namely self-observation by video replay, lead to a lasting remission of severe AHP in an acute stroke patient (Fotopoulou, A., Rudd, A., Holmes, P., & Kopelman, M. ( 2009 ). Self-observation reinstates motor awareness in anosognosia for hemiplegia. Neuropsychologia, 47, 1256-1260). This procedure has been adjusted and applied here, as the basis of two intervention protocols administered independently to two patients with severe AHP. The first study used multiple, successive sessions of video-based self-observation in an acute patient, targeting first the awareness of upper limb and subsequently lower limb paralysis. The second study used a single session of video-based, self- and other-observation in a patient at the chronic stage following onset. Both protocols also involved elements of rapport building and emotional support. The results revealed that video-based self-observation had dramatic, immediate effects on awareness in both acute and chronic stages and it seemed to act as an initial trigger for eventual symptom remission. Nevertheless, these effects did not automatically generalise to all functional domains. This study provides provisional support that video-based self-observation may be included in wider rehabilitation programmes for the management and restoration of anosognosia.
Transfusion Medicine, 2008
Hippocampus, 2003
There are many controversies concerning the structural basis of retrograde amnesia (RA). One view... more There are many controversies concerning the structural basis of retrograde amnesia (RA). One view is that memories are held briefly within a medial temporal store ("hippocampal complex") before being "consolidated" or reorganised within temporal neocortex and/or networks more widely distributed within the cerebral cortex. An alternative view is that the medial temporal lobes are always involved in the storage and retrieval (reactivation) of autobiographical memories (multiple trace theory). The present study used quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 40 patients with focal pathology/volume loss in different sites, to examine the correlates of impairment on three different measures of RA. The findings supported the view that widespread neural networks are involved in the storage and retrieval of autobiographical and other remote memories. Brain volume measures in critical structures could account for 60% of variance on autobiographical memory measures (for incidents and facts) in diencephalic patients and for 60-68% of variance in patients with frontal lesions. Significant correlations with medial temporal lobe volume were found only in the diencephalic group, in whom they were thought to reflect thalamic changes, but not in patients with herpes encephalitis or hypoxia in whom the temporal lobes were particularly implicated. The latter finding fails to support one of the main predictions of multiple trace theory, as presently expounded.
Occupational Medicine, 2008
Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 2008
Profound loss of awareness for the past in amnesia has implications for our understanding of memo... more Profound loss of awareness for the past in amnesia has implications for our understanding of memory and belief systems, and how they may become disrupted in neurological conditions. We report the case of CW, a professional musician who became severely amnesic in 1985 following herpes simplex viral encephalitis (HSVE) at the age of 46 years. For many years CW stated several times a day that he had just woken up. He frequently wrote this in his diary too. When shown examples of his diary entries or videos of himself playing or conducting music, he recognised both his handwriting and himself on the video screen but stated vehemently that he "was not conscious then". In a previous paper (Wilson, Baddeley, & Kapur 1995), it was suggested that this lack of awareness for the past was a delusion, defined as a strongly held belief in the face of contradictory evidence (rather than implying any kind of psychiatric disorder per se). As a contribution to the academic debate regarding theories of "self", in the present paper we will review this explanation of CW's state as it had been in those early years, and we will also consider two other possibilities - namely, that CW had suffered from a loss of "autobiographical self" or "extended consciousness" (see Damasio, 2000, pp. 198-199), and that his verbal reports simply reflected a form of coping strategy to help him deal with the limited evidence he had available in "declarative" memory.