Focal retrograde amnesia: a multi-faceted disorder?

In this paper I review the recently introduced syndrome of focal retrograde amnesia-a disproportionate impairment of remote memory in the presence of normal or near normal anterograde memory. It is concluded that the modal form of the syndrome has been reliably demonstrated and that the underlying pathology involves damage to the temporal lobes and relative sparing of the hippocampal formation. A variant of the syndrome associated with parietal and occipital lobe damage is also presented. Finally, a third type of focal retrograde amnesia associated with minor brain trauma is considered to be or primarily psychogenic origin.