Accelerated long-term forgetting and autobiographical memory disorders in temporal lobe epilepsy: One entity or two?

• Published in: Revue neurologique 2017-07, Vol.173 (7-8), p.498-505
• Main Authors: Lemesle, B., Planton, M., Pagès, B., Pariente, J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accelerated long-term forgetting; Autobiographical memory; Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe - complications; Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe - psychology; Humans; Memory consolidation; Memory Disorders - classification; Memory Disorders - diagnosis; Memory Disorders - etiology; Memory, Episodic; Memory, Long-Term - physiology; Neuropsychological Tests; Temporal lobe epilepsy; Transient epileptic amnesia
• ISSN: 0035-3787
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neurol.2017.07.004

Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is a type of epilepsy that often has a negative impact on patients’ memory. Despite the importance of patients’ complaints in this regard, the difficulties described by these patients are often not easy to demonstrate through a standard neuropsychological assessment. Accelerated long-term forgetting and autobiographical memory disorders are the two main memory impairments reported in the literature in patients with TLE. However, the methods used by different authors to evaluate long-term memory and autobiographical memory are heterogeneous. This heterogeneity can lead to differences in the observed results as well as how they are interpreted. Yet, despite the methodological differences, objectification of such memory deficits appears to be both specific and robust within this patient population. Analysis of the literature shows that accelerated long-term forgetting and autobiographical memory disorders share the same clinical characteristics. This leads to the assumption that they are, in fact, only one entity and that their evaluation may be done through a single procedure. Our proposal is to place this evaluation within the context of memory consolidation disorders. With such a perspective, evaluation of accelerated forgetting in autobiographical memory should consist of identifying a disorder in the formation and/or recovery of new memory traces.