The life stories of adults with amnesia: Insights into the contribution of the medial temporal lobes to the organization of autobiographical memory.

ABSTRACT: Autobiographical memories are not stored in isolation but rather are organized into life chapters, higher-order knowledge structures that represent major themes conveying the arc of one's life. Neuropsychological studies have revealed that both episodic memory and some aspects of personal semantic memory are impaired in adults with medial temporal lobe (MTL) damage. However, whether such impairment compromises the retrieval and formation of life chapters is unknown. Therefore, we had 10 adults with MTL amnesia and 20 control participants narrate their life stories, and we extracted life chapters from these narratives using a novel scoring protocol. For the retrograde and anterograde time period separately, we evaluated the number of life chapters and assessed their quality, as indexed by m

SUBMITTER: Grilli MD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5592132 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature