PATIENTS WITH HIPPOCAMPUS AMNESIA CANNOT IMAGINE NEW EXPERIENCES

Patients with hippocampus amnesia cannot imagine new experiences

Patients with hippocampus amnesia cannot imagine new experiences

Article:

Demis Hassabis , Dharshan Kumaran , Seralynne D. Vann , and Eleanor A. Maguire. Patients with hippocampal amnesia cannot imagine new experiences.

1. Why the investigators presented the study

In this article researcher presented the study of Amnesic patients who have well established shortfall in recalling their past experiences. Surprisingly, however, the inquiry as to if such patients can imagine new familiarity has not been formally addressed to our knowledge. We checked if a assembly of amnesic patients with primary impairment to the hippocampus bilaterally could assemble new envisaged experiences in response to short verbal cues that delineated a range of simple commonplace scenarios. Our outcomes revealed that patients were markedly weakened relation to agreed command topics at envisaging new experiences. Moreover, we recognised a likely source for this deficit. The patients' envisaged knowledge lacked spatial coherence, comprising instead of fragmented images in the nonattendance of a holistic representation of the ecological setting. The hippocampus, thus, may make a critical assistance to the creation of new familiarity by supplying the spatial context into which the disparate components of an experience can be bound. Given how nearly envisaged experiences match episodic recollections, the absence of this function mediated by the hippocampus, may furthermore fundamentally sway the proficiency to vividly re-experience the past.

2. How the investigators presented the study

In this article researcher presented a group of patients (n = 5) with amnesia associated with bilateral hippocampal damageand a group of matched control subjects (n =10) could assemble new envisaged knowledge in response to short verbal cues which outlined a variety of easy commonplace scenarios. When envisaging a new know-how participants were explicitly notified not to recount a recalled happening or any part of one but rather to give free reign to their imaginations and conceive certain thing new. They were also boosted to “see the position and setting in their mind's eye” as if they themselves were physically present and to recount as numerous sensory and introspective details about the position as they could. These descriptions were then scored along a variety of parameters to address two inquiries: (i) is the hippocampus critical for envisaging familiarity, paralleling its vital role in recollecting the past; and if so, (ii) is there a exact hippocampal mechanism underpinning envisaging that might furthermore accept on its role in episodic memory?

3. What the researchers found out

In this experiment, researcher developed a paradigm where participants, rather than recollecting the past, had to envisage new experiences. Our outcomes demonstrate that amnesic patients with bilateral hippocampal damage were significantly weakened on this task. From this study, we are adept to draw some conclusions. To start with, this methodical study formally articles that patients with hippocampal amnesia have a shortfall in richly envisaging new know-hows. Second, in disclosing this we show that the function of the hippocampus extends after reliving past experiences, encompassing not only imagining reasonable self-relevant future events, but ...