Neural correlate of anterograde amnesia in wernicke–korsakoff syndrome
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1
Geneva University Hospitals, Switzerland
The neural correlate of anterograde amnesia in Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome is still debated. While the capacity to learn new information has been associated with integrity of the medial temporal lobe, previous studies indicated that the Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome is associated with diencephalic lesions, mainly in the mammillary bodies and anterior or dorsomedial thalamic nuclei. The aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that amnesia in Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome is associated with a disrupted neural circuit between diencephalic and hippocampal structures. High-density evoked potentials were recorded in 4 severely amnesic patients with chronic Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome and in 10 age matched controls. Subjects performed a continuous recognition task of pictures in which each item was repeated either immediately or after intervening items. Immediate picture repetition has been shown to induce early activation of the left medial temporal lobe (MTL; James et al., 2009; Nahum et al., in press). In addition, Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) was performed with a 3 tesla unit. Recognition of delayed repetition was severely impaired in all patients. Electrophysiologically, patients showed absence of the early, left MTL dependent positive potential (P2) between 250 and 350 ms following immediate picture repetitions. DTI indicated disruption of the anterior inferior fornix, which connects diencephalic and hippocampal structures. The findings support an interpretation of anterograde amnesia in Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome as a consequence of a disconnexion between diencephalic and hippocampal structures with deficient contribution of the medial temporal lobe to rapid consolidation.
Keywords:
DTI,
Neuropsychiatry
Conference:
XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Poster Sessions: Neuropsychiatric Applications
Citation:
Nahum
L,
Pignat
J,
Guggisberg
AG,
Wahlen
A,
Ptak
R and
Schnider
A
(2011). Neural correlate of anterograde amnesia in wernicke–korsakoff syndrome.
Conference Abstract:
XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00230
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Received:
21 Nov 2011;
Published Online:
28 Nov 2011.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Louis Nahum, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland, louis.nahum@hcuge.ch