Storage or retrieval deficit: the yin and yang of amnesia

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

To this day, it remains unresolved whether experimental amnesia reflects failed memory storage or the inability to retrieve otherwise intact memory. Methodological as well as conceptual reasons prevented deciding between these two alternatives: The absence of recovery from amnesia is typically taken as supporting storage impairment interpretations; however, this absence of recovery does not positively demonstrate nonexistence of memory, allowing for alternative interpretations of amnesia as impairment of memory retrieval. To address this shortcoming, we present a novel approach to study the nature of amnesia that makes positive, i.e., falsifiable, predictions for the absence of memory. Applying this paradigm, we demonstrate here that infusing anisomycin into the dorsal hippocampus induces amnesia by impairing memory storage, not retrieval.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)224-30
Number of pages7
JournalLearning & Memory
Volume16
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2009

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • Amnesia
  • Animals
  • Anisomycin
  • Conditioning, Operant
  • Extinction, Psychological
  • Hippocampus
  • Injections, Intraventricular
  • Male
  • Memory
  • Protein Synthesis Inhibitors
  • Rats
  • Rats, Sprague-Dawley

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