Accelerated forgetting in TEA

22 Accelerated forgetting in TEA 2 Transient Epileptic Amnesia (TEA) is a form of temporal lobe epilepsy associated with 23 ictal and interictal memory disturbance. Some patients with TEA exhibit Accelerated 24 Long-term Forgetting (ALF), in which memory for verbal and non-verbal material is 25 retained normally over short delays but fades at an unusually rapid rate over days to 26 weeks. This study addresses three questions about ALF in TEA: i) whether real-life 27 events undergo ALF in a similar fashion to laboratory-based stimuli; ii) whether ALF can 28 be detected within 24 hours; iii) whether procedural memories are susceptible to ALF. 29 Eleven patients with TEA and eleven matched healthy controls wore a novel, automatic 30 camera, SenseCam, while visiting a local attraction. Memory for images of events was 31 assessed on the same day and after delays of one day, one week, and three weeks. 32 Forgetting of real-life events was compared with forgetting of a word list and with 33 performance on a procedural memory task. On the day of their excursion, patients and 34 controls recalled similar numbers of primary events, associated secondary details 35 (contiguous events, thoughts and sensory information) and items from the word list. In 36 contrast, patients showed ALF for primary events over three weeks, with ALF for 37 contiguous events, thoughts and words over the first day. Retention on the procedural 38 memory task was normal over three weeks. The results indicate that accelerated 39 forgetting in TEA: i) affects memory for real-life events as well as laboratory stimuli; ii) 40 is maximal over the first day; and iii) is specific to declarative memories. 41 42