Authors:

Manes, F., GRAHAM, K.S., Zeman, A., Calcagno, M.L. & HODGES, J.R.

Reference:

Year of publication:

2005

CBU number:

6014

Abstract:

Background: Recurrent brief isolated episodes of amnesia associated with epileptiform discharges on EEG recordings have been interpreted as a distinct entity termed Transient Epileptic Amnesia (TEA). Patients with TEA often complain of autobiographical amnesia for recent and remote events but show normal anterograde memory. Objective: To investigate a) accelerated long-term forgetting and (b) autobiographical memory in a group of TEA patients. Methods: Seven TEA patients and seven age-matched controls were evaluated on a range of anterograde memory tasks on two sessions separated by six weeks and on the Galton-Crovitz test of cued autobiographical memory. Results: TEA patients showed abnormal long-term forgetting of verbal material with virtually no recall after 6 weeks. In addition there was impaired recall of autobiographical memories from the time periods 1985-89 and 1990-94 but not from period 1995-1999. Conclusions: TEA is associated with accelerated loss of new information and impaired remote autobiographical memory. There are a number of possible explanations including on-going sub-clinical ictal activity, medial temporal lobe damage as a result of seizure or subtle ischaemic pathology. Future analyses should seek to clarify the relationship between aetiology, seizure frequency and degree of memory impairment.