[Lesion of extrahippocampal cortices of left medial temporal lobe: a case report].

INTRODUCTION: The cortex of medial temporal lobe is a group of different allocortical fields which included the hippocampal formation (dentate gyrus, hippocampus proper, and subicular complex) and extrahippocampal cortices (entorhinal, perirhinal, and parahippocampal). It is widely accepted that both of them play an important role in memory process. In humans, several reports indicates that damage to the hippocampus alone would lead to a clinically significant amnesia; when the injuries are more extensive others cognitive disorders, as those related to visual sphere, make worse the clinic picture, and some of these cases were reported as associative visual agnosias. Nevertheless, although evidence from animal studies points to the importance of the extrahippocampal medial temporal lobe cortices in order to recognise visual stimuli, such involvement has not been demonstrated in humans.

CASE REPORT: A 44 year-old male who consulted us because they had lost about of '80% of his vision' after a stroke. Ophthalmological examination was entirely within normal limits, but neuropsychological test put in evidence difficulties in the visuo-verbal naming, discrimination of superposed images, recognition of faces and, mainly, in the test of immediate and deferred visual memory. Anterograde memory impairment was also revealed. Magnetic resonance imaging showed a lesion of left entorhinal, perirhinal and parahippocampal cortices.

CONCLUSIONS: We suggest, in relation to anatomical evidences, that isolation of hippocampus is responsible for symptomatollogy of our patient.