Coping with severe memory impairment

Living with global amnesia: self-established compensation strategies of a patient with severe memory impairment - a narrative report

We report the case of C.H., a 48-year-old patient with global amnesia caused by herpes simplex encephalitis at the age of 20 and subsequent extensive bilateral temporal lobe lesions. Neuropsychological examinations performed at various intervals found persistent dense explicit memory impairment and limited vocabulary, yet intact procedural memory. Despite these limitations, C.H. self-developed and acquired a variety of effective strategies. As a result, C.H. achieved a high level of autonomy in everyday life. Her remarkable case is an encouraging and helpful example for successful implementation of creative methods and procedures to compensate and alleviate cognitive limitation, even if extensive.

Compensating for anterograde amnesia: a new training method that capitalizes on emerging smartphone technologies

Following a neuropathological event, individuals left with moderate-to-severe memory impairment are unable to reliably form new memories. The most common challenges involve the capacity to perform a task in the future and to consciously recall a recent event. Disruption of these memory processes leaves the individual trapped in the present, unable to stay on track, and alienated from ongoing events. Memory research has demonstrated that implicit memory is often preserved despite severe explicit memory impairment and that preserved memory systems can provide avenues for acquiring new skills and knowledge. A within-subject single-case A1-B1-A2-B2 experimental design was used to introduce an established theory-driven training program of technology use for individuals with moderate-to-severe memory impairment. We describe its application to enabling RR, an individual with memory impairment postcolloid cyst removal, to independently support her memory using a commercial smartphone. RR showed successful outcome on both objective and qualitative measures of memory functioning. Moreover, she demonstrated consistent and creative generalization of acquired smartphone skills across a broad range of real-life memory-demanding circumstances. Our findings suggest that individuals with moderate-to-severe memory impairment are able to capitalize on emerging commercial technology to support their memory.

The use of a wearable camera, SenseCam, as a pictorial diary to improve autobiographical memory in a patient with limbic encephalitis: A preliminary report

This case study describes the use of a wearable camera, SenseCam, which automatically captures several hundred images per day, to aid autobiographical memory in a patient, Mrs B, with severe memory impairment following limbic encephalitis. By using SenseCam to record personally experienced events we intended that SenseCam pictures would form a pictorial diary to cue and consolidate autobiographical memories. After wearing SenseCam, Mrs B plugged the camera into a PC which uploaded the recorded images and allowed them to be viewed at speed, like watching a movie. In the control condition, a written diary was used to record and remind her of autobiographical events. After viewing SenseCam images, Mrs B was able to recall approximately 80% of recent, personally experienced events. Retention of events was maintained in the long-term, 11 months afterwards, and without viewing SenseCam images for three months. After using the written diary, Mrs B was able to remember around 49% of an event; after one month with no diary readings she had no recall of the same events. We suggest that factors relating to rehearsal/re-consolidation may have enabled SenseCam images to improve Mrs B's autobiographical recollection.