Hippocampal Amnesia Case Study

Jimmie G’s problem is that he has anterograde explicit declarative amnesia. He cannot make any new memories, meaning his explicit memory, or his ability to consciously recollect memories, is only good for memories made before his injury presumably. His declarative memory is also damaged, as evidenced by his inability to remember the correct year and his inability to recognize that he is no longer 19. He can still access his implicit memory as evidenced by the fact that he remembers the routine with doctors. He can still access those memories as well as procedural memories and demonstrated that by drawing a map of his hometown and still remembering morse code.

Name one brain area you think could be damaged. Give evidence for why you think this would be. One brain area I would think would be damaged is the medial temporal lobe region, which would include the hippocampus which is the area responsible for recollection of memories. If this area was damaged, the effects would likely be very similar, as evidenced by Patient HM. Patient HM had his medial temporal lobe removed bilaterally and had very …show more content…
It’s symptoms vary greatly depending on the type and severity of injury to the hippocampus. Usually patients present with anterograde memory loss and varying retrograde memory loss. Some have lost lost all retrograde and anterograde memory even. Procedural and implicit memory is usually left intact while explicit memory may or may not be intact. Episodic memory is most impacted usually when it comes to retrograde loss. Unlike the other disorders listed here, imaging would be needed specifically in order to tell if Jimmie’s condition could be attributable to hippocampal amnesia because the diagnosis of this amnesia is linked directly to the state of the