Tanaka Y, Miyazawa Y, Akaoka F, Yamada T
Department of Neurology, Jichi Medical School, Tochigi, Japan.
Neurology. 1997 Jan;48(1):160-5. doi: 10.1212/wnl.48.1.160.
It is not known whether lesions of the mammillary body per se can produce significant memory impairment in humans. The amnesia reported in patients with lesions in the mammillary bodies may have been produced by lesions coexisting in other memory-related areas, such as the medial thalamus, mammillothalamic tract, descending columns of the fornix, or amygdalofugal pathways. We describe a patient who developed anterograde amnesia following damage to the basal hypothalamus involving the mammillary bodies. The cause was a cystic craniopharyngioma. After surgical removal of the tumor, his memory function improved but remained considerably impaired, especially on delayed recall. Postsurgical MRI revealed small, atrophic mammillary bodies without residual tumor. There was no obvious evidence of damage to the hypothalamus. We therefore conclude that our patient's amnesia resulted from mammillary body lesions alone.
目前尚不清楚乳头体本身的病变是否会在人类中导致显著的记忆障碍。乳头体有病变的患者所报告的失忆可能是由其他与记忆相关区域同时存在的病变引起的，如内侧丘脑、乳头丘脑束、穹窿下行柱或杏仁核传出通路。我们描述了一名患者，其基底下丘脑受损累及乳头体后出现了顺行性失忆。病因是囊性颅咽管瘤。手术切除肿瘤后，他的记忆功能有所改善，但仍有相当程度的受损，尤其是在延迟回忆方面。术后MRI显示乳头体小且萎缩，无残留肿瘤。没有明显的下丘脑损伤证据。因此，我们得出结论，我们患者的失忆仅由乳头体病变所致。
