The Possibility of Eidetic Memory in a Patient Report of Epileptogenic Zone in Right Temporo-Parietal-Occipital Cortex

Life (Basel). 2023 Apr 6;13(4):956. doi: 10.3390/life13040956.

Abstract

Eidetic memory has been reported in children and in patients with synesthesia but is otherwise thought to be a rare phenomenon. Presented herein is a patient with right-sided language dominance, as proven via multiple functional imaging and neuropsychometric methods, who has a seizure onset zone in the right temporo-parietal-occipital cortex. This patient's medically refractory epilepsy and thus hyperactive cortex could possibly contribute to near eidetic ability with paired-associates learning tasks (in both short-term and long-term retention). There are reports of epilepsy negatively affecting memory, but as far as the authors are aware to date, there is limited evidence of any lesion enhancing cognitive functions (whether through direct lesion or via compensatory mechanism) that would be localized to a seizure onset zone in the dominant temporo-parietal-occipital junction.

Keywords: angular gyrus; dominant temporo-parietal-occipital junction; eidetic; pair associative memory; psychometrics; refractory epilepsy.

Grants and funding

This research was funded in part by National Science Centre, Poland, grant Opus LAP no.: 2020/39/I/NZ4/02070 and in part by the Gdansk University of Technology, IDUB grant Aurum: Supporting International Research Team Building. For the purpose of Open Access, the authors have applied a CC-BY public copyright license to any Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) version arising from this submission.