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Research Article

Patients with hippocampal amnesia cannot imagine new experiences

Demis Hassabis, Dharshan Kumaran, Seralynne D. Vann, and Eleanor A. Maguire
  1. *Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, United Kingdom; and
  2. †School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Tower Building, Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3AT, United Kingdom

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PNAS January 30, 2007 104 (5) 1726-1731; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0610561104
Demis Hassabis
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Dharshan Kumaran
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Seralynne D. Vann
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Eleanor A. Maguire
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  • For correspondence: e.maguire@fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk
  1. Communicated by Endel Tulving, Rotman Research Institute of Baycrest Centre, North York, ON, Canada, November 29, 2006 (received for review October 11, 2006)

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Abstract

Amnesic patients have a well established deficit in remembering their past experiences. Surprisingly, however, the question as to whether such patients can imagine new experiences has not been formally addressed to our knowledge. We tested whether a group of amnesic patients with primary damage to the hippocampus bilaterally could construct new imagined experiences in response to short verbal cues that outlined a range of simple commonplace scenarios. Our results revealed that patients were markedly impaired relative to matched control subjects at imagining new experiences. Moreover, we identified a possible source for this deficit. The patients' imagined experiences lacked spatial coherence, consisting instead of fragmented images in the absence of a holistic representation of the environmental setting. The hippocampus, therefore, may make a critical contribution to the creation of new experiences by providing the spatial context into which the disparate elements of an experience can be bound. Given how closely imagined experiences match episodic memories, the absence of this function mediated by the hippocampus, may also fundamentally affect the ability to vividly re-experience the past.

  • episodic
  • hippocampus
  • imagination
  • memory
  • construction

Footnotes

  • ‡To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: e.maguire{at}fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk
  • Author contributions: D.H. and E.A.M. designed research; D.H., D.K., S.D.V., and E.A.M. performed research; D.H. and E.A.M. analyzed data; and D.H., D.K., and E.A.M. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0610561104/DC1.

  • Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.

  • © 2007 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA
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Patients with hippocampal amnesia cannot imagine new experiences
Demis Hassabis, Dharshan Kumaran, Seralynne D. Vann, Eleanor A. Maguire
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jan 2007, 104 (5) 1726-1731; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0610561104

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Patients with hippocampal amnesia cannot imagine new experiences
Demis Hassabis, Dharshan Kumaran, Seralynne D. Vann, Eleanor A. Maguire
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jan 2007, 104 (5) 1726-1731; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0610561104
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