Abstract
Declarative and procedural memory in adolescents with antecedents of perinatal asphyxia. Neuropathological studies of the cerebral consequences of perinatal asphyxia have shown the hippocampal and basal ganglia to be particularly vulnerable to injury. It has been suggested that neuroanatomical lesions of this kind may produce declarative and procedural memory deficits. To test this hypothesis we compared memory performance in 28 adolescents with antecedents of perinatal asphyxia and 28 controls matched for age, sex and sociocultural status. Results showed impairment in verbal and visual declarative memory in subjects with antecedents of moderate neonatal encephalopathy but not in subjects with mild encephalopathy. Procedural memory performance was similar in all groups. The results suggest that the hippocampal system is more vulnerable to perinatal asphyxia than the striatal system.
