| Sumario: | Three new strands of evidence are contributing to efforts aimed at identifying the causes of anterograde amnesia linked to damage to the diencephalon. First, novel anatomical analyses have refined understanding of the connections between diencephalic and temporal brain regions related to amnesia. These analyses bring attention to the limited numbers of routes connecting the two regions. Second, the significance of at least one of these routes, the fornix, for episodic memory is confirmed in neuropsychological evaluations of patients with colloid cysts. Merging of these anatomical and neuropsychological data yields strong evidence for the perception that damage to hippocampal—mammillary body—anterior thalamic interactions was enough to introduce amnesia. Third was the possibility that the retrosplenial cortex supplies an integrating connection in this functional system. Moreover, current evidence indicates that the retrosplenial cortex may suffer “covert” pathology subsequent to damage to the anterior thalamic nuclei or hippocampus.
|
|---|