ABSTRACT
“Diencephalic amnesia” has become a standard term (e.g., Markowitsch, 1988b; McEntee, Biber, Perl, & Benson, 1976; Parkin & Leng, 1988; Squire, 1987a) and refers to the fact that damage to the region of the medial thalamus, to the (medial) mamillary bodies, or to fiber tracts within these areas frequently leads to long-lasting memory disturbances. Parkin and Leng (1988) give the following characteristics for the amnesic syndrome:
(i) Patients have an intact span of immediate apprehension as measured by standardized tests such as digit span. (ii) Language and general intellectual functions appear unimpaired when measured on tests such as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale…. (iii) Patients have a severe anterograde amnesia as manifest in their inability to recall or recognize novel information when tested only a few minutes after the learning episode. (iv) Retrograde amnesia (RA) will also be present although the extent will vary across patients. (v) Existing skills will be preserved, and there will be evidence of residual learning capability on tasks that do not require the patient to access the memory of a specific personal event.
