Amnesia and emotion : a case study

This study investigates several aspects of emotion in a severely amnesic patient, AC, who is clinically described to have emotionally changed since his amnesia. Two cognitive dimensions of emotions were explored: (a) general knowledge of emotion and (b) induced emotional feeling states. The results show that AC's general knowledge of emotions is normal. Furthermore, AC is able to describe changes in his expression of anger, despite his complete inability to remember a precise event of anger, before or after his amnesia. Under laboratory emotional induction, AC displays normal emotional profiles except in the "sadness" condition, where he reports clearly positive feeling states. After a 3-week delay, AC is able to retrieve substantial information, in cued recall and recognition condition, about an emotional episode. These results are discussed in the framework of recent interpretations of amnesia.