Acquired Amnesia in Childhood: A
Single Case Study
C. L.
Nicole E. Iannone
Who is it?
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C. L.
8-year old girl
What Went Wrong?
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Surgical removal of a brain tumor from the left cerebral
ventricle at the age of 4.
Healthy until 3 years, 9 months, difficulty with balancing
and walking.
Brain exam identified a tumor in the left lateral and third
ventricles with abnormal accumulation of cerebrospinal
fluid in the ventricles.
Signs of elevated blood pressure in the brain.
9 days after exam underwent surgical removal of tumor
14 months after the tumor’s removal, a new MRI showed
a lesion to the head of the left caudate nucleus, which
was surgically removed; assumed to be tissue
destruction due to radiation.
Nature of the Damage
Nature of the Damage
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Diffuse damage
Level of damage between tiny and massive
An area of cortical-subcortical damage at the level of the
caudal portion of the left frontal lobe.
At the cortical area, the superior gyrus and cingulate
gyrus were damaged.
At the subcortical leve, the corpus callosum, white
matter surrounding the front of the left lateral ventricle,
the caudate nucleus, the thalamus, the superior
colliculus, and the fornix were damaged.
Because of the enlargement of the left ventricle, the left
hippocampus slipped down in relation to the
contralateral hippocampus, with consensual twisting of
the left fornix.
Memory
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Results from testing:
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Could not recover recent verbal data from
episodic long-term memory.
Performed well on short-term verbal tests.
Problems with episodic visual-spatial memory:
did not have any memory of a visual
sequence after a 5 minute delay.
Can read and write but has some difficulty.
Memory
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Anterograde Amnesic Syndrome: Normal shortterm memory but poor explicit long-term
memory
Trouble remembering day-to-day events and
information
Main problem was inability to consolidate new
episodic memory traces in the episodic memory
system
Verbal abilities equivalent to her chronological
age
What We Can Learn
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Some case studies showed that semantic
abilities are dependent on the workings of
episodic memory (Squire & Zola, 1998).
The case of C. L. supports a theory of at least
partially different routes to memory for
autobiographical and factual information.
Adds to literature supporting a theory that
children who cannot store episodic information
in memory can store semantic memory
What We Can Learn
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Theory is hippocampal functioning is necessary
for episodic functioning
Perirhinal cortex might be responsible for
semantic memory
Damage in the left hippocampus and a
sectioning of the fornix disconnecting the mesial
temporal structures from the diencephalic nuclei
likely responsible for the episodic memory deficit
Outlook
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No specific therapies being attempted
After 4 years C. L. could increase her
factual knowledge and revealed a lexicalsemantic repertoire similar to children of
the same age
Questions Still to Be Answered
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It remains unclear whether or not C. L.
will ever be able to retain autobiographical
memory.
Is this situation different for children than
it is for adults?