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Abstract:
Abstract: The dearth of reports documenting amnesia in
children hasled to the notion that when damage to the medial
temporal lobe system occurs during childhood, the compensatory
capacity of the immature brain rescues memory functions. An
alternative explanation is that such damage so interferes with the
development of learning and memory that it results not in selective
impairments but in general mental retardation. Data are presented
to counter both of these arguments. Results obtained from a series
of amnesic patients with a history of hypoxic ischaemic damage
sustained perinatally or during the first year of life indicate a
pronounced dissociation between episodic memory, which is severely
impaired, and semantic memory, which is relatively spared. A second
dissociation in these patients is characterized by impaired recall
and preserved recognition. These results are discussed in terms of
the neuropathology associated with hypoxic ischaemic damage and a
hierarchical model of cognitive memory.
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