Random number generation and the ability of mentally reconstructing context in patients with organic amnesia

Studies investigating amnesic patients have shown the involvement of the medial temporal lobe during working memory (WM) tasks, especially when multiple items or features have to be associated. However, so far, no study has examined the relationship between episodic memory and WM components in patients with amnesia for comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to investigate whether the null retention relates to deficits in the episodic buffer (EB) or the central executive (CE) components of WM. METHODS: This study included 15 amnesic patients with mixed etiologies and 13 matched healthy controls. These 15 amnesic patients with mixed etiologies were divided into two subgroups: NUL subgroup (n=7) patients whose raw score was 0 (zero) on the Logical Memory delayed recall test and MOR subgroup (n=8) patients who recalled at least 1 item. The EB was assessed by complex span tasks, and the CE was assessed by random number generation (RNG) test. RESULTS: EB tasks were impaired in both subgroups compared with controls. RNG was impaired in NUL (p=0.03), but not in MOR (p=0.99), subgroup. CONCLUSIONS: CE impairment hampers the retrieval mode action, preventing it from initiating the mental reconstruction of the context in which the to-be-remembered information was presented minutes ago.