Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Amsterdam Brain and Cognition (ABC) Center, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
J Neuropsychol. 2020 Mar;14(1):20-27. doi: 10.1111/jnp.12180. Epub 2019 Feb 15.
What is the long-term trajectory of semantic memory deficits in patients who have suffered structural brain damage? Memory is, per definition, a changing faculty. The traditional view is that after an initial recovery period, the mature human brain has little capacity to repair or reorganize. More recently, it has been suggested that the central nervous system may be more plastic with the ability to change in neural structure, connectivity, and function. The latter observations are, however, largely based on normal learning in healthy subjects. Here, we report a patient who suffered bilateral ventro-medial damage after presumed herpes encephalitis in 1971. He was seen regularly in the eighties, and we recently had the opportunity to re-assess his semantic memory deficits. On semantic category fluency, he showed a very clear category-specific deficit performing better that control data on non-living categories and significantly worse on living items. Recent testing showed that his impairments have remained unchanged for more than 40 years. We suggest cautiousness when extrapolating the concept of brain plasticity, as observed during normal learning, to plasticity in the context of structural brain damage.
语义记忆缺损在经历结构性脑损伤的患者中会有怎样的长期轨迹？记忆，从定义上讲，是一种变化的能力。传统观点认为，在初始恢复期后，成熟的人脑几乎没有能力进行修复或重组。最近，有人认为中枢神经系统具有更大的可塑性，能够改变神经结构、连接和功能。然而，这些观察结果主要基于健康受试者的正常学习。在这里，我们报告了一名患者，他在 1971 年被怀疑患有疱疹性脑炎后，双侧腹内侧受损。他在八十年代定期接受检查，最近我们有机会重新评估他的语义记忆缺损。在语义类别流畅性方面，他表现出非常明显的类别特异性缺陷，在非生命类别上的表现优于对照组数据，而在生命项目上的表现明显较差。最近的测试表明，他的损伤已经超过 40 年没有变化。我们建议在将正常学习过程中观察到的大脑可塑性概念推断到结构性脑损伤的情况下，要谨慎行事。
