Skip to main content
PMC home page
Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry logoLink to Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry
. 1995 Jul;59(1):95–98. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.59.1.95

Bilateral lesions of CA1 and CA2 fields of the hippocampus are sufficient to cause a severe amnesic syndrome in humans.

L D Kartsounis 1, P Rudge 1, J M Stevens 1
PMCID: PMC1073611  PMID: 7608720

Abstract

A patient is reported in whom a classic amnesic syndrome developed as a result of repeated episodes of cerebral ischaemia, accompanied by seizures. The amnesia was very severe for both old and newly acquired memories and the critical lesions defined by MRI were circumscribed areas confined to CA1 and CA2 fields of both hippocampi.

Full text

PDF
95

Images in this article

96Image
on p.96
96Image
on p.96

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Aggleton J. P., Mishkin M. Memory impairments following restricted medial thalamic lesions in monkeys. Exp Brain Res. 1983;52(2):199–209. doi: 10.1007/BF00236628. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Graff-Radford N. R., Tranel D., Van Hoesen G. W., Brandt J. P. Diencephalic amnesia. Brain. 1990 Feb;113(Pt 1):1–25. doi: 10.1093/brain/113.1.1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Horel J. A. The neuroanatomy of amnesia. A critique of the hippocampal memory hypothesis. Brain. 1978 Sep;101(3):403–445. doi: 10.1093/brain/101.3.403. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Lipton S. A., Rosenberg P. A. Excitatory amino acids as a final common pathway for neurologic disorders. N Engl J Med. 1994 Mar 3;330(9):613–622. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199403033300907. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. McKenna P., Warrington E. K. Testing for nominal dysphasia. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1980 Sep;43(9):781–788. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.43.9.781. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Press G. A., Amaral D. G., Squire L. R. Hippocampal abnormalities in amnesic patients revealed by high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging. Nature. 1989 Sep 7;341(6237):54–57. doi: 10.1038/341054a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Rausch R., Babb T. L. Hippocampal neuron loss and memory scores before and after temporal lobe surgery for epilepsy. Arch Neurol. 1993 Aug;50(8):812–817. doi: 10.1001/archneur.1993.00540080023008. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. SCOVILLE W. B., MILNER B. Loss of recent memory after bilateral hippocampal lesions. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1957 Feb;20(1):11–21. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.20.1.11. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Sagar H. J., Cohen N. J., Sullivan E. V., Corkin S., Growdon J. H. Remote memory function in Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Brain. 1988 Feb;111(Pt 1):185–206. doi: 10.1093/brain/111.1.185. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Sloviter R. S. The functional organization of the hippocampal dentate gyrus and its relevance to the pathogenesis of temporal lobe epilepsy. Ann Neurol. 1994 Jun;35(6):640–654. doi: 10.1002/ana.410350604. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Teitelbaum J. S., Zatorre R. J., Carpenter S., Gendron D., Evans A. C., Gjedde A., Cashman N. R. Neurologic sequelae of domoic acid intoxication due to the ingestion of contaminated mussels. N Engl J Med. 1990 Jun 21;322(25):1781–1787. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199006213222505. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Warrington E. K., McCarthy R. A. The fractionation of retrograde amnesia. Brain Cogn. 1988 Apr;7(2):184–200. doi: 10.1016/0278-2626(88)90029-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Warrington E. K., Weiskrantz L. New method of testing long-term retention with special reference to amnesic patients. Nature. 1968 Mar 9;217(5132):972–974. doi: 10.1038/217972a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Zola-Morgan S., Squire L. R., Amaral D. G. Human amnesia and the medial temporal region: enduring memory impairment following a bilateral lesion limited to field CA1 of the hippocampus. J Neurosci. 1986 Oct;6(10):2950–2967. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.06-10-02950.1986. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Zola-Morgan S., Squire L. R., Amaral D. G. Lesions of the amygdala that spare adjacent cortical regions do not impair memory or exacerbate the impairment following lesions of the hippocampal formation. J Neurosci. 1989 Jun;9(6):1922–1936. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.09-06-01922.1989. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES