Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Hippocampus. 2011 Apr;21(4):409-21. doi: 10.1002/hipo.20757.
Medial temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), a condition known to affect the integrity and function of medial temporal lobe structures such as the hippocampus, has been shown to disrupt memory for real-life episodes. Here, patients with unilateral TLE, patients who received a unilateral temporal lobe resection to cure TLE, and healthy controls produced free narratives of autobiographical memories (AMs). To assess temporal resolution, narratives were segmented into bits of information, or details, which were classified according to how precisely they could be located within the time course of the AM. Categories included details corresponding to the entire AM, to parts or subevents within the AM, and to actions taking place within seconds to minutes. The number of details per category was tallied and compared between patients and controls. Temporal order was assessed by determining the correct (internally consistent) chronological order of the sequence of events within the narrative. Results indicate that while patients' memory for the parts or subevents of personal episodes was intact, as was their temporal order, their memory for the minute-by-minute unraveling of the episode was impaired. We believe this loss of temporally specific details may contribute to the reduced vividness of AM recollection in TLE patients. Our findings provide further evidence that patients with hippocampal damage retrieve skeletal AMs for which the gist of the memory is maintained, but the specific details are lost.
内侧颞叶癫痫（TLE）是一种已知会影响内侧颞叶结构（如海马体）的完整性和功能的疾病，已被证明会干扰对真实生活事件的记忆。在这里，单侧 TLE 患者、接受单侧颞叶切除术以治愈 TLE 的患者和健康对照组都自由地叙述了自传体记忆（AMs）。为了评估时间分辨率，将叙述分成信息片段或细节，根据它们在 AM 时间进程中的精确位置进行分类。分类包括对应于整个 AM、AM 内的部分或子事件以及发生在几秒钟到几分钟内的动作的细节。对每个类别的细节数量进行计数，并在患者和对照组之间进行比较。通过确定叙述中事件序列的正确（内部一致）时间顺序来评估时间顺序。结果表明，尽管患者对个人事件的部分或子事件的记忆完好无损，时间顺序也正确，但他们对事件每分钟展开的记忆受损。我们认为，这种丧失时间特异性细节可能导致 TLE 患者 AM 回忆的生动度降低。我们的发现进一步证明，海马体损伤的患者会检索到记忆的梗概得以保留但具体细节丢失的骨架 AM。
