Sparing of spatial mental imagery in patients with hippocampal lesions
- Soyun Kim1,2,
- Grégoire Borst3,
- William L. Thompson4,
- Ramona O. Hopkins5,6,
- Stephen M. Kosslyn7 and
- Larry R. Squire1,2,8,9,10
- 1Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, California 92161, USA
- 2Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, California 92093, USA
- 3Laboratory for the Psychology of Child Development and Education, CNRS Unit 3521, University Paris Descartes, Paris 75005, France
- 4Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
- 5Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Center, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84143, USA
- 6Department of Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care Division, Intermountain Medical Center, Murray, Utah 84143, USA
- 7Dean's Office, Minerva University, San Francisco, California 94131, USA
- 8Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, California 92093, USA
- 9Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, California 92093, USA
Abstract
In four experiments, we explored the capacity for spatial mental imagery in patients with hippocampal lesions, using tasks that minimized the role of learning and memory. On all four tasks, patients with hippocampal lesions performed as well as controls. Nonetheless, in separate tests, the patients were impaired at remembering the materials that had been used to assess mental imagery. The findings suggest that the hippocampus is not needed for constructing many forms of spatial imagery but is needed for the formation of long-term memory. In future studies of the neural organization of spatial mental imagery, it will be important to separate the contribution of spatial processing from the contribution of learning and memory.
Footnotes
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↵10 Corresponding author
E-mail lsquire{at}ucsd.edu
- Received April 25, 2013.
- Accepted August 12, 2013.
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