Impaired odor recognition memory in patients with hippocampal lesions

Daniel A. Levy, Ramona O. Hopkins, Larry R. Squire

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

35 Scopus citations

Abstract

In humans, impaired recognition memory following lesions thought to be limited to the hippocampal region has been demonstrated for a wide variety of tasks. However, the importance of the human hippocampus for olfactory recognition memory has scarcely been explored. We evaluated the ability of memory-impaired patients with damage thought to be limited to the hippocampal region to recognize a list of odors. The patients were significantly impaired after a retention delay of 1 h. Olfactory sensitivity was intact. This finding is in agreement with earlier reports that rats with hippocampal lesions exhibited memory impairment on an odor delayed nonmatching to sample task (after 30 min and 1 h) and that patients with damage thought to be limited to the hippocampal region were impaired on an odor span memory task. Olfactory recognition memory, similar to recognition memory in other sensory modalities, depends on the integrity of the hippocampal region.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)794-796
Number of pages3
JournalLearning and Memory
Volume11
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2004
Externally publishedYes

Funding

FundersFunder number
National Institute of Mental HealthR37MH024600

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