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.