Article

Implicit contextual learning is the ability to acquire contextual information
from our surroundings without conscious awareness.
Such contextual information
facilitates the localization of objects in space. In a typical implicit
contextual learning paradigm, subjects need to find a target among a number of
distractors during visual search. Some of the configurations of stimuli are
repeated during the experiment resulting in faster responses than for novel
configurations, without subjects being aware of their repetition. Patients with
Korsakoff's syndrome (KS) have been found to show devastating explicit spatial
amnesia. Less is know about their implicit spatial memory abilities.
The aim of the present research was to examine whether implicit contextual learning is
intact in KS. Therefore, eighteen KS patients and twenty-two age-IQ- and
education-matched controls performed the Implicit Contextual Learning task and a
paradigm intended to assess explicit, spatial working memory, i.e. the Box task.
Intact implicit contextual learning was observed in both the control group and
the KS patients. In turn KS patients did have markedly lower explicit spatial
working memory scores. The implicit learning effect was not related to the
spatial working memory scores. Together these results clearly suggest that
implicit and explicit spatial memory have a different neurocognitive basis.
CI - Copyright (c) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS