Tranel Daniel, Jones Robert D
Department of Neurology, Division of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA.
J Clin Exp Neuropsychol. 2006 Jan;28(1):43-66. doi: 10.1080/13803390490919344.
The ability to situate autobiographical memories accurately in the "time-line" of one's own life is a particular aspect of retrograde memory that has received little attention in well-controlled, systematic studies. Here, we addressed this issue by testing the hypothesis that patients with basal forebrain damage would be impaired in their ability to place various autobiographical memories accurately on a 'time-line' of their life. Seven such subjects were contrasted with 11 medial temporal lobe subjects, 8 brain-damaged comparison subjects, and 18 normal comparison subjects, using a procedure in which subjects placed autobiographical events on a time-line of their life. The basal forebrain group was very impaired in this task, relative to the other groups, and on average, misplaced events by more than five years. Although the basal forebrain group was also impaired in retrieving the contents of autobiographical memory, they did not differ statistically from the medial temporal lobe group in this regard (and the medial temporal lobe group did not have impaired time placement of memories). The results indicate an intriguing dissociation between "knowing what" and "knowing when," and suggest that the basal forebrain contains structures that are especially important for "knowing when." Our findings are compatible with the view that the basal forebrain participates critically in retrieval strategies important for memory chronology, which contrasts with the medial temporal lobe's critical role in relational memory per se.
将自传体记忆准确地置于个人生活“时间线”中的能力是逆行记忆的一个特殊方面，在严格控制的系统性研究中很少受到关注。在此，我们通过检验以下假设来解决这个问题：基底前脑损伤的患者在将各种自传体记忆准确地置于其生活“时间线”上的能力会受损。我们让7名此类受试者与11名内侧颞叶受试者、8名脑损伤对照受试者和18名正常对照受试者进行对比，采用的程序是让受试者将自传事件置于其生活的时间线上。相对于其他组，基底前脑组在这项任务中受损严重，平均将事件的时间错置超过五年。虽然基底前脑组在提取自传体记忆的内容方面也受损，但在这方面与内侧颞叶组在统计学上没有差异（并且内侧颞叶组在记忆的时间定位方面没有受损）。结果表明在“知道是什么”和“知道何时”之间存在一种有趣的分离，并表明基底前脑包含对“知道何时”特别重要的结构。我们的发现与以下观点一致，即基底前脑在对记忆时间顺序很重要的提取策略中起着关键作用，这与内侧颞叶在关系记忆本身中的关键作用形成对比。
