Loss of memory for people following temporal lobe damage.

A 40-yr-old woman, K.S., is reported, who shows a severe loss of memory for people following a history of epilepsy and right anterior temporal lobectomy. Despite this memory problem, K.S. is not clinically amnesic, has a Memory Quotient of 122 on the Wechsler Memory Scale in line with her IQ of 119, and performs well on conventional tests of recognition and recall. She does not have a generalized semantic memory deficit for living things, but her deficit extends beyond people to include famous animals, buildings and product names. Autobiographical memory is good, except where memory for people is concerned. The nature of the memory store that is impaired in K.S. is discussed, as are the implications of her case for theories of the organization of long-term memory.