Memory for objects presented soon after intracarotid amobarbital sodium injections in patients with medically...

We evaluated the abilities of 36 patients with intractable temporal lobe epilepsy and left hemisphere dominance for language to later recognize objects presented in the confusional phase after left intracarotid amobarbital injection. Eighteen of 24 patients with left, but only 4/12 with right, temporal lobe epilepsy recognized at least two-thirds of objects during a post-test. These results demonstrate that the initial muteness and apparent confusion after amobarbital injection do not prohibit the formation of new memories; this gives further support to the idea that consciousness can be retained despite transient disruption of function of the language-dominant hemisphere.