ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the different test procedures that is used to assess retrograde amnesia and considers the methodological issues that pertain to these tests. It reviews the status of retrograde amnesia in case HM, case NA, patients receiving bilateral electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and alcoholic Korsakoff patients. The chapter discusses the relevance of the organization of memory and its neurological foundations. The development of remote memory tests based on events in the public domain has insured that the information to be tested is verifiable and accessible to all subjects. It considers the methodological issues as they pertain to the remote memory tests used in studies of amnesia: public events tests; famous faces tests; tests of former one-season television programs. The pattern of remote memory impairment in amnesia leads about the neuropsychology of memory: amnesia is not a unitary disorder; the brain regions affected in amnesia appear to constitute a neuroanatomical system specialized for the formation of new memories.
