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KC: The Role of Visual Imagery Deficits within Autobiographical Memory

KC: The Role of Visual Imagery Deficits within Autobiographical Memory.

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KC: The Role of Visual Imagery Deficits within Autobiographical Memory

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  1. KC: The Role of Visual Imagery Deficits within Autobiographical Memory Rosenbaum, R.S., McKinnon, M.C., Levine, B., & Moscovitch, M. (2004). Visual imagery deficits, impaired strategic retrieval, or memory loss: disentangling the nature of an amnesic person’s autobiographical memory deficit. Neuropsychologia, 42(12), 1619-1635. Presented by : Juliana Peters

  2. This puzzling problem arises when we ask, "Who is the I that knows the bodily me, who has an image of myself and a sense of identity over time, who knows that I have propriate strivings?" I know all these things, and what is more, I know that I know them. But who is it who has this perspectival grasp? …It is much easier to feel the self than to define the self. -Gordon Allport

  3. KC • 50-year-old, right-handed man • 15 years of education • Suffered irreversible amnesia from traumatic brain injury caused during a motorcycle accident in 1981.

  4. Damage • Complete devastation to right hippocampus • Atrophy to right parahippocampal gyrus. Also in mammillary bodies, the septal area, and the fornices.

  5. Damage cont. • Lesion in left occipital-temporal cortex, and slightly in retrosplenial cortex; lesions in medial occipital-temporal-parietal, and left frontal-parietal regions. http://www.med.harvard.edu/AANLIB/cases/caseNA/pb9.htm

  6. Memory Impairment • Severe Anterograde and Retrograde Amnesia for autobiographical memory. • Inability to place images within a temporal-spatial context. • Impairment seen on standardized tests of memory. • WASI: IQ of 99 (2003 assessment) • WMS-R: 5th percentile on logical memory • Autobiographical Memory Interview

  7. Sustained Memory Abilities • Semantic Memory • World Knowledge Remained • Schematic Cognitive Map • Executive Function Tests • WASI similarities and matrix reasoning subtests • Abstract Reasoning • Concept Formation/Mental Flexibility • Wisconsin Card Sorting test/Concept Generation Test

  8. Rosenbaum et al.’s Tests • Main purpose: to see if K.C.’s memory loss was due to malfunctioning of posterior neocortex or to malfunctioning of frontal neocortex. • Experiment One: Visual imagery of object identity and spatial location • Wanted to see if visual imagery loss was at all an important aspect of K.C.’s inability to recall his personal past. • Tested K.C.’s ability to segment, combine and rotate mental images • Tests included: • Imagery for Object Size • Imagery of Object Color • Mental Clock Test • Recreated Images

  9. Experiment One Findings • K.C. maintains functional imagery system. • Was able to make accurate judgements of size, shape, and spatial relations of tested objects. • Showed ability to dismantle, rotate, and reorganize visual representations • Shows that the imagery system is “necessary but…not sufficient for autobiographical memory retrieval.”

  10. Experiment Two: Autobiographical Interview • Wanted to distinguish if deficit was result of problems in memory storage or shows deficit in executive functioning to retreive details. • Tested KC through Autobiographical Interview (Moscovitch et al.& Levine et al.) • Categorized retrievals as episodic or non-episodic. • Categorized as internal or external • Free Recall versus Specific Probe

  11. Experiment 2 Findings • The Autobiographical Interview reinstated that K.C. had severe retrograde amnesia for internal details. • Unable to retrieve a single memory through free recall. • Specific Cue Retrieval provided only a slight improvement for details • Information provided lacked significant richness

  12. Findings Suggest? • As stated by Nadel and Moscovitch (1997), the hippocampus plays a major role in the retreival of autobiographical memories throughout the life. • Role of the hippocampal-neocortical interactions • These studies do suggest that degeneration of the neocortex and damage to the hippocamal area are not the sole areas responsible for the severe anterograde amnesia

  13. FutureResearch • Scores from cued recall may be misleading due to previous exposure. • Future research needed to see the defining role of cued recall on autobiographical memory retrieval. • More research needed in recognition of past events. • Does not depend on strategic search and just the identification of a particular event • Rosenbaum, although found that no relationship between visual imagery deficits and memory loss, he suggests that future research focus on other types of neocortically mediated functions and their effects on amnesia.

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