A Case with The Selective Impairment of Semantic Memory

Abstract

    We report our investigations of a single patient, R. N., with lesions in the antero-inferior part of the both temoporal lobes in whom there was a relatively selective impairment of semantic memory (SM). He had no signs neuorologically, but, neuropsychologically, had a marked deficit of the use of common objects besides Korsakoff's syndromes and transcortical sensory aphasia (TSA). The deficit of the use of common objects isn't attributed to aphasia. The result of our experiment on the use of common objects showed that the error pattern of R. N. was different from the one of patients either with ideo-motor/ideational apraxia or with amnesic syndromes and that his errors were thought to be attributed to the loss of memory for the use of common objects. Taking it into account that R. N. had TSA also, we speculate that the impairment of semantic memory was reflected in his deficit of the use of common objects. Our findings didn't necessarily confirm that his impairment of SM was modality-specific and that the superordinate information was preserved, but provided some evidence that several categories were selectively preserved (category specificity).