Accelerated long-term forgetting in patients with acquired brain injury

ABSTRACT

Objective

Recent research suggests that patients with neurological disorders without overt seizures may also experience accelerated long-term forgetting (ALF). This term describes unimpaired learning and memory performance after standard retention intervals, but an excessive rate of forgetting over delays of days or weeks. The objective of this retrospective study was to investigate ALF in patients with an acquired brain injury (ABI) and to associate memory performance with executive functions.

Methods

Verbal memory performance (short-term recall, 30-min recall, 1-week recall) was assessed in 34 adult patients with ABI and compared to a healthy control group (n = 54) using an auditory word learning and memory test.

Results

Repeated measure analysis showed significant effects of time and group as well as interaction effects between time and group regarding recall and recognition performance. Patients with ABI had a significantly impaired 1-week recall and recognition performance compared to the healthy control group. Correlations between recall performance and executive functions were nonsignificant.

Discussion

Our results demonstrate that non-epileptic patients with ABI, especially patients with frontal and fronto-temporal lesions, are prone to ALF. Additionally, our data support the assumption that ALF results from a consolidation impairment since verbal recall and recognition were impaired in patients with ABI.

KEYWORDS:

• Acquired brain injury
• memory consolidation
• delayed episodic memory recall
• executive functions
• accelerated long-term forgetting

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Susan Kaplan for proofreading this manuscript. Additionally, the authors thank the Reviewers for critically reading and improving the manuscript with their inputs.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Credit author statement

Martina Studer: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Data Curation, Writing – Original Draft, Supervision, Project administration. Adrian Guggisberg: Methodology, Resources, Formal Analysis, Writing – Review & Editing, Supervision. Naomi Gyger: Investigation, Data Curation, Visualization, Project administration. Klemens Gutbrod: Conceptualization, Writing – Review & Editing. Katharina Henke: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – Review & Editing, Supervision. Dörthe Heinemann: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – Review & Editing, Supervision

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sector.