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PubMed2001

Names and words without meaning: incidental postmorbid semantic learning in a person with extensive bilateral medial temporal damage.

The authors describe a densely amnesic man who has acquired explicit semantic knowledge of famous names and vocabulary words that entered popular culture after the onset of his amnesia. This new semantic knowledge was temporally graded and existed over and above the implicit memory he demonstrated in reading speed and accuracy, familiarity ratings, and his ability to make correct guesses on unfamiliar items. However, his postmorbid knowledge was limited to verbal labels denoting famous people and words; he possessed virtually no explicit knowledge of the meaning of these words or the identities of these individuals, although there was some evidence that some of this information had been acquired at an implicit level. Findings are discussed in the context of a neural network model (J. L. McClelland, B. L. McNaughton, & R. C. O'Reilly, 1995) of semantic acquisition.

Amnesia↗

PubMed2000

Category-specific visual responses of single neurons in the human medial temporal lobe.

The hippocampus, amygdala and entorhinal cortex receive convergent input from temporal neocortical regions specialized for processing complex visual stimuli and are important in the representation and recognition of visual images. Recording from 427 single neurons in the human hippocampus, entorhinal cortex and amygdala, we found a remarkable degree of category-specific firing of individual neurons on a trial-by-trial basis. Of the recorded neurons, 14% responded selectively to visual stimuli from different categories, including faces, natural scenes and houses, famous people and animals. Based on the firing rate of individual neurons, stimulus category could be predicted with a mean probability of error of 0.24. In the hippocampus, the proportion of neurons responding to spatial layouts was greater than to other categories. Our data provide direct support for the role of human medial temporal regions in the representation of different categories of visual stimuli.

Action Potentials↗

PubMed1993

[Recollections of Hans Goldmann, 1899-1991].

Professor Hans Goldmann died in Bern on November 19th, 1991 at the age of 91 years. His outstanding intellectual capacity was discovered at an early age and demonstrated throughout his life. He was appointed as teaching assistant of the famous A. Cermak von Seysenegg, Chairman of the Institute of Physiology of the German Charles University in Prague. During his stay at the University of Prague, he was influenced by the famous people of his time, such as Einstein (physicist), Mach (physicist and psychophysicist), Lorenz (behavioral scientist), Popper (philosopher), Schlick (physicist and philosopher), Hering (physiologist), and others. Goldmann absorbed the essence of these disciplines to a very large extent. This, together with his remarkable intellect, enabled him to produce outstanding research work within a large spectrum of sciences more or less directly related to ophthalmology. Goldmann became known in particular for his exceptional and fundamental work on perimetry and glaucoma and he managed to cast his basic insight into practical, easy-to-operate, high-precision diagnostic instruments which, several decades after their invention, are still used by every ophthalmologist. He will enter history as one of the very great pioneers in ophthalmology.

History, 20th Century↗

PubMed1993

Spared written naming of proper nouns: a case report.

In this study we describe an investigation into the residual written word retrieval skills of M.E.D., a patient with a severe aphasia. M.E.D.'s performance on written naming and writing to dictation tasks showed a distinctive pattern of performance across semantic categories. The patient's ability to write the names of countries and famous people was consistently superior to her ability to write the names of objects. These results could be considered as indicative of a double dissociation in the proper nouns category, as there are already patients on record who have a selective deficit in retrieving proper nouns.

Anomia↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Towards a unitary account of access dysphasia: a single case study.

We report the case of a patient, H.E.C., with a profound verbal comprehension impairment. His comprehension impairment involved both common names (animal and inanimate items) and proper names. Within the proper name category, his comprehension of country and famous peoples' names was better than his comprehension of common forenames. By using matching to sample techniques, H.E.C.'s impairment was found to be affected by presentation rate and by semantic relatedness, but not by word frequency. An analysis of his responses showed marked inconsistency and serial position effects (i.e. a decrement of performance on subsequent presentations of the same items). H.E.C.'s comprehension deficit was interpreted in terms of an "access" impairment within the word-meaning system. A unitary account of this impairment in terms of a deficit that delays the return, following activation, of the set of representations underlying a word, to a "ready state" is proposed.

Anomia↗

PubMed1992

Repetition priming follows spontaneous but not prompted recognition of familiar faces.

Reaction times to make a familiarity decision to the faces of famous people were measured after recognition of the faces in a pre-training phase had occurred spontaneously or following prompting with a name or other cue. At test, reaction times to familiar faces that had been recognized spontaneously in the pre-training phase were significantly facilitated relative to an unprimed comparison condition. Reaction times to familiar faces recognized only after prompting in the pre-training phase were not significantly facilitated. This was demonstrated both when a name prompt was used (Experiments 1 and 3) and when subjects were cued with brief semantic information (Experiment 2). Repetition priming was not found to depend on prior spontaneous recognition per se. In Experiment 3, spontaneously recognizing a familiar face did not prime subsequent familiarity judgements when the same face had only been identified following prompting on a prior encounter. In Experiment 4, recognition memory for faces recognized after cueing was found to be over 90% accurate. This indicates that prompted recognition does not yield repetition priming, even though subjects can remember the faces. A fusion of "face recognition unit" and "episodic record" accounts of the repetition priming effect may be more useful than either theory alone in explaining these results.

Cues↗

PubMed1995

An interactive activation model of face naming.

Burton and Bruce's (1992) model of face naming predicts a "fan effect", in which naming of famous people about whom many descriptive properties are known should be slower than naming of celebrities about whom few properties are known. An experiment is reported that showed that, contrary to this prediction, knowledge of many descriptive properties facilitated face-naming latency. An alternative architecture for an interactive activation model is proposed in which descriptive properties are represented in separate pools of units for each domain of information and in which names are represented by a separate pool of lexical output units. Computer simulations showed that this model could simulate the previously available empirical data as effectively as Burton and Bruce's (1992) original model. However, the proposed model could also simulate the effect of the number of known descriptive properties upon face-naming latency observed in the experiment reported. The new architecture also has the advantage of being more compatible with current models of speech production, and it allows preserved access to unique semantic properties in the context of impaired face naming as reported in the neuropsychological literature.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

Why are familiar-only experiences more frequent for voices than for faces?

Hanley, Smith, and Hadfield (1998) showed that when participants were asked to recognize famous people from hearing their voice, there was a relatively large number of trials in which the celebrity's voice was felt to be familiar but biographical information about the person could not be retrieved. When a face was found familiar, however, the celebrity's occupation was significantly more likely to be recalled. This finding is consistent with the view that it is much more difficult to associate biographical information with voices than with faces. Nevertheless, recognition level was much lower for voices than for faces in Hanley et al.'s study, and participants made significantly more false alarms in the voice condition. In the present study, recognition performance in the face condition was brought down to the same level as recognition in the voice condition by presenting the faces out of focus. Under these circumstances, it proved just as difficult to recall the occupations of faces found familiar as it was to recall the occupations of voices found familiar. In other words, there was an equally large number of familiar-only responses when faces were presented out of focus as in the voice condition. It is argued that these results provide no support for the view that it is relatively difficult to associate biographical information with a person's voice. It is suggested instead that associative connections between processing units at different levels in the voice-processing system are much weaker than is the case with the corresponding units in the face-processing system. This will reduce the recall of occupations from voices even when the voice has been found familiar. A simulation was performed using the latest version of the IAC model of person recognition (Burton, Bruce, & Hancock, 1999) which demonstrated that the model can readily accommodate the pattern of results obtained in this study.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1997

Retrieval of old memories: the temporofrontal hypothesis.

Extensive neuropsychological testing is reported on two chronic patients with combined temporopolar and prefrontal damage, dominantly left-hemispheric, and, as control, one chronic patient with bi-hemispheric prefrontal damage. The principal finding is that combined temporofrontal damage, but not substantial prefrontal damage alone, results in marked retrograde memory deficits while leaving intelligence and new learning relatively unimpaired. Although their general world knowledge was good, the temporopolar patients demonstrated retrograde memory impairments on several tests of past events and faces of previously famous people. With respect to retrograde autobiographical memory, one of the temporopolar patients was severely impaired and the other was judged to be moderately impaired. The control patient appeared to be normal. These results, together with corresponding data from related single case and dynamic imaging studies, strongly support a crucial role of the temporofrontal junction area in the ecphory of old memories.

Adult↗

PubMed1998

Acquisition of post-morbid vocabulary and semantic facts in the absence of episodic memory.

Disagreement exists in the literature over whether it is possible for new semantic (factual) information to be learned in the absence of episodic (event) memory. We report the case of R.S., a 49-year-old amnesic man, who we found to have acquired information about famous people, public events and new vocabulary during the 13-year period since he became amnesic, despite having no measurable anterograde episodic memory function and a profound loss of autobiographical memory. These data suggest that at least some severe amnesics are able to acquire new semantic knowledge, provided that critical temporal neocortical regions are spared. We discuss these findings in the context of recent connectionist models of memory.

Amnesia↗

PubMed2004

Genetic landmarks through philately--epilepsy and clinical genetic issues.

Epilepsy is a common neurologic disorder. Major advances in the understanding of the etiology and treatment have occurred. Although most cases of epilepsy do not follow a simple pattern of inheritance, recently single gene epilepsy disorders have been identified. We present some postage stamps to illustrate issues and advances in knowledge about epilepsy, as well as famous people with this disorder.

Epilepsy↗

PubMed2004

Evaluating commercial weight loss programmes: an evolution in outcomes research.

The increasing prevalence of obesity has been mirrored by a parallel increase in the number of commercial weight loss programmes. Research evaluating these programmes is meagre, however, compared to the numbers treated. Reluctance of commercial weight loss programmes to meaningfully evaluate their weight loss efficacy may arise from fear that competitors will use the results against them. Evaluation of commercial weight loss programmes usually progresses from testimonials, often by famous people who were successful, to uncontrolled studies of past participants evaluated either by the programme itself or by an outside entity. The gold standard, however, is a scientifically rigorous, controlled study of the programme conducted by an independent entity. Such a study, published in a peer-reviewed journal, can gain credibility for a programme, as it did with Slim Fast, if the results are positive, or herald the end of the programme, as it was with Simeons human chorionic gonadotropin injection clinics. This review of the evolution of the evaluation process of commercial weight loss programmes leads us to conclude that consumers are likely to demand greater scientific rigour in the future, a change that will favour informed choice and discourage the practice of unrealistic advertising that raises false hopes.

Diet Fads↗

PubMed2004

Confabulation, but not executive dysfunction discriminate AD from frontotemporal dementia.

We examined confabulation and performance on frontal/executive tasks in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and patients with a diagnosis of probable frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Twenty-two patients with probable AD, 10 patients with probable FTD and 32 normal control subjects entered the study. Executive functions were assessed with the Modified Card Sorting test; a verbal fluency test; the Cognitive Estimation test; and the Stroop test. Confabulations were assessed with a modified version of the Confabulation Battery. The Confabulation Battery included 10 questions tapping each of the following domains: Episodic Memory (memories of personal past episodes), Semantic Memory (knowledge of famous facts and famous people), and Personal Future (personal plans). The results revealed that both AD patients and FTD patients were clearly and equally impaired on tests of executive functions. Both patients' groups confabulated across the three tasks of the Confabulation Battery, but FTD patients confabulated significantly more than AD patients on Episodic Memory and Personal Future. The results failed to provide any evidence of a correlation between the performance on frontal/executive tasks and the tendency to produce confabulatory reports. According to our results, confabulation, more than a deficit of frontal/executive functions, discriminate between AD and FTD. Therefore, screening for confabulation and, possibly, for other types of memory distortions may constitute a useful additional clinical tool in order to discriminate AD from FTD.

Aged↗

PubMed1984

Right cerebral hemisphere superiority for recognizing the internal and external features of famous faces.

Right-handed male and female subjects were asked to identify bilaterally presented famous faces from an upright display of all the faces used in the experiment, under four conditions: these involved presentation of upright external features, upright internal features, upright whole faces, and inverted whole faces. The task was one of identification in the sense of picking out presented faces from a display of all the possible faces, and did not require explicit naming of the famous people. Left visual hemifield superiorities were found for upright external features, upright internal features, and upright whole faces, which did not vary across these three conditions. Overall performance levels did vary, with whole faces better identified than internal features, which were in turn better identified than external features. The presentation of inverted whole faces led to poorer overall performance than for upright faces, and no visual hemifield asymmetry. These results show that the right cerebral hemisphere is better able than the left to recognize known faces from both internal and external features.

Cerebral Cortex↗

PubMed2002

Face recognition in age related macular degeneration: perceived disability, measured disability, and performance with a bioptic device.

AIMS: (1) To explore the relation between performance on tasks of familiar face recognition (FFR) and face expression difference discrimination (FED) with both perceived disability in face recognition and clinical measures of visual function in subjects with age related macular degeneration (AMD). (2) To quantify the gain in performance for face recognition tasks when subjects use a bioptic telescopic low vision device. METHODS: 30 subjects with AMD (age range 66-90 years; visual acuity 0.4-1.4 logMAR) were recruited for the study. Perceived (self rated) disability in face recognition was assessed by an eight item questionnaire covering a range of issues relating to face recognition. Visual functions measured were distance visual acuity (ETDRS logMAR charts), continuous text reading acuity (MNRead charts), contrast sensitivity (Pelli-Robson chart), and colour vision (large panel D-15). In the FFR task, images of famous people had to be identified. FED was assessed by a forced choice test where subjects had to decide which one of four images showed a different facial expression. These tasks were repeated with subjects using a bioptic device. RESULTS: Overall perceived disability in face recognition did not correlate with performance on either task, although a specific item on difficulty recognising familiar faces did correlate with FFR (r = 0.49, p<0.05). FFR performance was most closely related to distance acuity (r = -0.69, p<0.001), while FED performance was most closely related to continuous text reading acuity (r = -0.79, p<0.001). In multiple regression, neither contrast sensitivity nor colour vision significantly increased the explained variance. When using a bioptic telescope, FFR performance improved in 86% of subjects (median gain = 49%; p<0.001), while FED performance increased in 79% of subjects (median gain = 50%; p<0.01). CONCLUSION: Distance and reading visual acuity are closely associated with measured task performance in FFR and FED. A bioptic low vision device can offer a significant improvement in performance for face recognition tasks, and may be useful in reducing the handicap associated with this disability. There is, however, little evidence for a correlation between self rated difficulty in face recognition and measured performance for either task. Further work is needed to explore the complex relation between the perception of disability and measured performance.

Aged↗

PubMed1999

Remote memory in Alzheimer's disease.

The authors examined the severity and type of deficits in remote memory in patients with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD). In the first study, 40 AD patients showed significantly more severe deficits on both the free-recall and the recognition sections of the Remote Memory Scale (which measures memory for famous people and well-known events) compared with normal control subjects. In the second study, 25 AD patients showed significantly more deficits on the free-recall section of the Autobiographical Memory Scale compared with normal control subjects. Remote memory deficits in AD may be related to both retrieval deficits and damage to memory traces.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

Memory deficits in a demented patient with probable corticobasal degeneration.

Anterograde and retrograde amnesia in a patient with probable corticobasal degeneration (pCBD) and dementia were studied in a university medical center setting. The patient with pCBD and four comparison patients of comparable global mental status (Mini-Mental State Exam) who met NINCDS-ADRDA criteria for Alzheimer's disease (AD) were included. Standard neuropsychological tests of naming, intelligence, achievement, verbal fluency, anterograde and remote verbal and visuospatial memory, and motor skill learning were given. The pCBD patient exhibited a progressive asymmetric akinetic-rigid syndrome, which was unresponsive to Sinemet. His initially mild, intellectual deficits consisted of apraxia, slowed speech, and word-finding and memory difficulties. Over a 2-year period, a dementia syndrome developed, which involved more-serious deficits in praxis and naming, as well as impairments in spelling, calculation, verbal fluency, IQ, anterograde verbal and visuospatial memory, and motor skill learning. When tested by recall methods, the pCBD patient exhibited marked deficits on several tests of remote memory; however, on recognition testing, he performed normally on the Famous Faces Test and on a test of geographical knowledge, which measures remote visuospatial memory. By contrast, the four AD patients, who showed equivalent naming difficulties, less-severe fluency deficits, and normal motor skill learning, showed severe impairments in recalling and recognizing the names of famous people from photographs. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan of the pCBD patient showed marked frontal and parietal lobe atrophy and central atrophy, with ventriculomegaly that was greater on the left side of the brain. The temporal lobes were relatively spared, and the amygdalae, hippocampi, and temporal horns were of normal size.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗

PubMed1998

Transient autobiographic amnesia: EEG and single-photon emission CT evidence of an organic etiology.

We describe a 44-year-old patient who had a transient attack of autobiographic amnesia. When assessed during the attack, her learning abilities were normal, with no sign of anterograde amnesia. In the remote memory domain, she showed a striking dissociation between a detailed knowledge of public events and famous people and a complete loss of autobiographic information. During the attack, EEG recorded bilateral frontotemporal slow waves and single-photon emission CT (SPECT) showed hypoperfusion in the right temporal and parietal lobes; no abnormalities were detected when both EEG and SPECT were repeated 1 week later. This case provides evidence for an organic etiology for the episode and supports the hypothesis that autobiographic memory is independent of other forms of retrograde memory.

Adult↗