The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Unexpected amnesia: are there lessons to be learned from amnesia after unilateral temporal lobe surgery?

Unexpected amnesia: are there lessons to be learned from amnesia after unilateral temporal lobe surgery?
Unexpected amnesia: are there lessons to be learned from amnesia after unilateral temporal lobe surgery?
Cases of amnesia following unilateral temporal lobe surgery are rare, but they may provide important insights into human brain functioning. Such cases are reconsidered here in the light of recent developments in clinical and cognitive neuroscience. Descriptions of preoperative seizure activity in these cases indicate the potentially valuable role of ictal semiology in localizing the source of epileptiform discharges. Cases of amnesia after unilateral temporal lobectomy illustrate the complexity of intra- and inter-hemispheric propagation of epileptiform discharges and highlight possible neurophysiological mechanisms underlying false localization of abnormal EEG activity. This review points to the value of preoperative neuropsychological assessment in providing information on the likely primary locus of pathology and in predicting outcome after surgery. The analysis of cases upholds the benefits of the Wada procedure, but it highlights the variability in Wada test procedures and the fact that Wada test scores themselves may be open to varying interpretation. These cases of postoperative amnesia are further considered in the context of the cognitive neuroscience of human memory and, in particular, mechanisms underlying the human amnesic syndrome. They confirm the critical role of bilateral medial temporal lobe structures in anterograde memory, but they also highlight the complexity in teasing apart neural mechanisms underlying remote memory loss
0006-8950
2573-2585
Kapur, Narinder
9ea5d758-bba6-4bc9-be6b-b056c0c83d9d
Prevett, Martin
d0c9e58d-4823-4ba0-b966-4dffd0c1545b
Kapur, Narinder
9ea5d758-bba6-4bc9-be6b-b056c0c83d9d
Prevett, Martin
d0c9e58d-4823-4ba0-b966-4dffd0c1545b

Kapur, Narinder and Prevett, Martin (2003) Unexpected amnesia: are there lessons to be learned from amnesia after unilateral temporal lobe surgery? Brain, 126 (12), 2573-2585. (doi:10.1093/brain/awg275).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Cases of amnesia following unilateral temporal lobe surgery are rare, but they may provide important insights into human brain functioning. Such cases are reconsidered here in the light of recent developments in clinical and cognitive neuroscience. Descriptions of preoperative seizure activity in these cases indicate the potentially valuable role of ictal semiology in localizing the source of epileptiform discharges. Cases of amnesia after unilateral temporal lobectomy illustrate the complexity of intra- and inter-hemispheric propagation of epileptiform discharges and highlight possible neurophysiological mechanisms underlying false localization of abnormal EEG activity. This review points to the value of preoperative neuropsychological assessment in providing information on the likely primary locus of pathology and in predicting outcome after surgery. The analysis of cases upholds the benefits of the Wada procedure, but it highlights the variability in Wada test procedures and the fact that Wada test scores themselves may be open to varying interpretation. These cases of postoperative amnesia are further considered in the context of the cognitive neuroscience of human memory and, in particular, mechanisms underlying the human amnesic syndrome. They confirm the critical role of bilateral medial temporal lobe structures in anterograde memory, but they also highlight the complexity in teasing apart neural mechanisms underlying remote memory loss

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Published date: 2003

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 41052
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/41052
ISSN: 0006-8950
PURE UUID: 8a86f4e2-093a-4ac2-ab88-3fef03e2c27c

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 14 Jul 2006
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 08:24

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Narinder Kapur
Author: Martin Prevett

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×