Psychogenic amnesia and self-identity: A multimodal functional investigation

Background: Patients with psychogenic amnesia generally suffer from episodic memory deficits associated with an impairment of self-identity. While the first is generally attributed to limbic dysfunction, the latter might be related to posterior parietal cortex. Methods and Results: In a patient with acute repetitive psychogenic amnesia, three different functional investigations (fMRI, electrical-neuroimaging, PET) during both resting-state and a behavioural paradigm testing 'time-travel' showed left posterior parietal activation, unlike in 12 control subjects. Conclusion: Impairment of self-identity and episodic memory in psychogenic amnesia may be associated with functional alterations of left posterior parietal cortex.