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Open Access 14-07-2023 | Amnesia | Research Article

Retrograde amnesia abolishes the self-reference effect in anterograde memory

Authors: Debora Stendardi, Flavia De Luca, Silvia Gambino, Elisa Ciaramelli

Published in: Experimental Brain Research | Issue 8/2023

Abstract

Is retrograde amnesia associated with an ability to know who we are and imagine what we will be like in the future? To answer this question, we had S.G., a patient with focal retrograde amnesia following hypoxia, two brain-damaged (control) patients with no retrograde memory deficits, and healthy controls judge whether each of a series of trait adjectives was descriptive of their present self, future self, another person, and that person in the future, and later recognize studied traits among distractors. Healthy controls and control patients were more accurate in recognizing self-related compared to other-related traits, a phenomenon known as the self-reference effect (SRE). This held for both present and future self-views. By contrast, no evidence of (present or future) SRE was observed in SG, who concomitantly showed reduced certainty about his personality traits. These findings indicate that retrograde amnesia can weaken the self-schema and preclude its instantiation during self-related processing.

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Title: Retrograde amnesia abolishes the self-reference effect in anterograde memory
Authors: Debora Stendardi
Flavia De Luca
Silvia Gambino
Elisa Ciaramelli
Publication date: 14-07-2023
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Keyword: Amnesia
Published in: Experimental Brain Research / Issue 8/2023
Print ISSN: 0014-4819
Electronic ISSN: 1432-1106
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-023-06661-2

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Retrograde amnesia abolishes the self-reference effect in anterograde memory

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