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Updated: Jul 30, 2026

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Emotional Autobiographical Recollection
Published on: August 26, 2011
Retrograde amnesia for world knowledge and preserved memory for autobiographic events. A case report
H J Markowitsch1, P Calabrese, H Neufeld
1Physiological Psychology, University of Bielefeld, Germany. hjmarkowitsch@post.uni-bielefeld.de
Abstract:
A patient (PC) with severe and chronic retrograde amnesia for world knowledge (tested with famous events and famous faces), but unimpaired autobiographical memory is described. The 64-year-old man had traumatic brain injury four years prior to the present evaluation. Current brain imaging showed principally damage involving the infero-lateral prefrontal and the lateral temporal regions of the left-hemisphere. PC was of average intelligence, had no depression and only minor language problems, but manifested some additional anterograde memory deficits and performed subaverage in various frontal lobe-sensitive tests. Patient PC represents one of the very few cases with a preserved retrograde episodic and an impaired retrograde knowledge system, showing a dissociation between preserved retrieval of autobiographical events and amnesia for nonpersonal famous events. It is hypothesized that the sparing of autobiographical memories can be linked to the integrity of the right frontal and temporo-polar cortices.
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