Recognition memory for single items and for associations is similarly impaired following damage to the hippocampal region - PubMed (original) (raw)

Recognition memory for single items and for associations is similarly impaired following damage to the hippocampal region

Craig E L Stark et al. Learn Mem. 2002 Sep-Oct.

Abstract

The formation of new associations between items is critical for establishing episodic memories. It has been suggested that the hippocampus is essential for creating such associations but is not involved, or is much less involved, in memory for single items. In Experiment 1, we tested controls and amnesic patients with bilateral lesions thought to be limited primarily to the hippocampal region in both single-item and associative recognition memory tasks. In the single-item task, a conventional recognition memory task was administered in which participants studied either houses or faces and were tested for their ability to recognize the individual items. In the associative task, participants studied paired pictures of houses and faces with instructions that encouraged associating the two stimuli, and were tested for their ability to recognize the specific pairings that were presented at study. Like the controls, the amnesic patients performed more poorly on the associative task. Relative to the controls, the amnesic patients were impaired to a similar extent on the single-item and associative tasks. In Experiment 2, the performance of the amnesic patients was improved by increasing the number of presentations of the study lists (eight presentations instead of one). On both the single-item and associative tests, the performance of the amnesic patients after eight presentations was now identical to the performance of the controls who had been given only one presentation of the study list. Thus, the associative condition was not disproportionally difficult for the amnesic patients. These results are consistent with the idea that the hippocampus is similarly involved in single-item and associative memory.

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Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1

Percent correct scores for control volunteers (CON; n = 10) and for amnesic patients with damage to the hippocampal region (H; n = 4) on a recognition memory test for pictures of houses or faces presented in isolation (single-item; white bars) and on an associative recognition test involving house-face pairs (associative; gray bars). In Experiment 1 (left), control volunteers and amnesic patients studied each item (single items or face-house pairs) only once (1×). In Experiment 2 (right), the amnesic patients studied each item eight times (8×). Error bars indicate the standard error of the mean, and the dashed lines indicate chance performance.

Figure 2

Figure 2

Examples of a house and a face stimulus. In the single-item condition, either a house or a face was presented in the middle of the screen. In the associative condition, the house and the face were presented side-by-side with instructions that encouraged associating the two stimuli.

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