Memory and Temporal Experience: the Effects of Episodic Memory Loss on an Amnesic Patient’s Ability to Remember the past and Imagine the Future

This article examines the effects of memory loss on a patient’s ability to remember the past and imagine the future. We present the case of D.B., who, as a result of hypoxic brain damage, suffered severe amnesia for the personally experienced past. By contrast, his knowledge of the nonpersonal past was relativelypreserved. A similar pattern was evidenced in his ability to anticipate future events. Although D.B. had great difficulty imaginingwhat his experiencesmight be like in the future, his capacity to anticipate issues and events in the public domain was comparable to that of neurologically healthy, age-matchedcontrols. These findings suggest that neuropsychological dissociations between episodic and semantic memory for the past also may extend to the ability to anticipate the future.