[Memory disturbances, eyelid conditioning, startle and orienting reactions (author's transl)]

Patients with memory disturbances were submitted to eyelid classical conditioning procedure in which a sound was reinforced at a 50 p. 100 rate by an air puff. They were compared to normal subjects and to patients with unilateral forebrain lesions. Six patients with mesodiencephalic lesions (mamillary bodies, fornix, cingulum) didn't have any conditioning while 2 patients with bilateral temporal lesions had normal conditioning. Startle and orienting reactions were very weak too in patients with mesodiencephalic lesions and normal in patients with bilateral temporal lesions. The startle and orienting reaction impairment can be related to attention disturbances leading to the lack of conditioning.