Autobiographical memory and the self in a single-case of chronic unilateral spatial neglect

ABSTRACT

Unilateral spatial neglect (USN) is mainly defined as a condition affecting perception and the mental representation of the environment. However, nothing is known about its impact on the ability to mentally represent one’s past and on personal identity. We addressed these questions in a case of chronic USN, DR, a 59-year-old right-handed woman, who underwent a variety of measures exploring the self and autobiographical memory (AM). DR showed preserved self-images and her AM performance was only preserved when memories were prompted by her own self-images and not by self-unrelated cues. Our findings are discussed in light of the interconnection between the self and AM.

KEYWORDS:

• Autobiographical memory
• self
• unilateral spatial neglect
• cognitive neuropsychology
• single-case study

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to DR for her participation in this study. The drafting of this paper was made possible by research funding from the Region de Bourgogne (France) awarded to Céline Souchay and Chris Moulin. We thank Chris Moulin for comments on the article. Alexandra Ernst is now a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Psychology-University of Liege, funded by a Marie Curie COFUND postdoctoral fellowship.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

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