Elsevier

Cortex

Volume 31, Issue 3, September 1995, Pages 555-564
Cortex

Fornix Damage and Memory: A Case Report

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0010-9452(13)80066-4Get rights and content

Abstract

The role of the fornix for episodic memory processing is still a matter of controversy. A juvenile patient of average post-surgical intelligence with fornical damage due to tumor removal is described. The fornix was damaged bilaterally at the level of the fornical columns. The patient thereafter suffered major anterograde amnesia which was most pronounced in tests using long delays (e.g., in the delayed recall index of the revised Wechsler Memory Scale). Amnesia was as prominent on the verbal as on the nonverbal level. Attention, concentration and short term memory abilities were preserved. Cognitive flexibility, procedural memory and priming were principally unimpaired. There was no evidence of retrograde amnesia. It is concluded that the fornix constitutes a major link between the three memory interfaces (medial diencephalon, medial temporal lobe, basal forebrain) and that its bilateral rupture anterior to the thalamic level may lead to lasting anterograde amnesia.

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  • Cited by (0)

    a

    Hans J. Markowitsch, Physiological Psychology, University of Bielefeld, P.O. Box 100131, D-33501 Bielefeld, Germany. Fax: (+49) 5211065844.

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