Studies of remote spatial memory in an amnesic person with extensive bilateral hippocampal lesions

grantor: University of TorontoRemote spatial memory was investigated in K.C., a patient with extensive bilateral hippocampal lesions. Despite his severe amnesia for autobiographical knowledge, K.C. performed normally on a wide range of spatial tests of his neighbourhood and the world which included: (1) natural navigation in his neighbourhood, (2) sketch mapping, (3) verbal mapping, (4) vector mapping, (5) blocked-route problem-solving, (6) distance judgments, (7) proximity judgments, (8) sequencing landmarks along routes, and (9) locating gross features on world maps (i.e., continents, countries, oceans). He was severely impaired, however, in recognizing and identifying all but the most salient neighbourhood landmarks and locating specific features on world maps (i.e., cities). The results suggest that the hippocampus does not appear critical for the maintenance and retrieval of remotely-formed cognitive maps but may be necessary for specifying details of different locations within a map. This deficit may be similar to K.C.'s episodic memory deficit where he remembers remote general knowledge but not specific autobiographical details.M.A