Isolated impairment of memory following a penetrating lesion of the fornix cerebri
J. Grafman, A. M. Salazar, H. Weingartner, S. C. Vance and C. Ludlow
Persistent memory problems were reported by a 39-year-old man who suffered
a penetrating brain wound while serving in Vietnam 15 years earlier.
Neuropsychological testing indicated an unusually isolated memory
impairment. Computed tomography revealed transection of the columns of the
fornix cerebri with no temporal-lobe involvement and minimal thalamic
damage. We suggest that the fornix cerebri has a role in the maintenance of
information accessibility to both encoding and recall during post-working
memory processing and in the organization of verbal information during
encoding and/or retrieval for declarative (recall) purposes. These
processes are not essential for verbal recognition but can result in
decrements on specific laboratory tasks and in social adjustment.
