Predicting syndromes of amnesia from a composite holographic associative recall/recognition model (CHARM)

The composite holographic associative recall/recognition model (CHARM) is used to predict the amnesia syndromes that are expected under conditions of discrete lesions to different components of the model. The components that are needed to allow recognition, recall, and rehearsal are: (1) perceptual/lexical processing and pattern identification, (2) consciousness or working memory, (3) association formation, (4) composite storage, (5) novelty monitoring and control, and (6) retrieval. Deficits in each of these components will have specific effects on memory, generating characteristic profiles of performance. Comparison of the profiles exhibited by patients to the component-based profiles predicted by the model identify the component impaired in a given patient, and connect the memory impairments to the underlying infarcted brain structures. The model, thus, relates the memory tasks to the particular memory components that allow enactment of those tasks, and shows how the dysfunction of particular components produces specific impairments.