Time for space: Studies of spatial and temporal order memory

Objectives: Remembering when and where something happenedinvolves memory for important contextual features of past events.Spatial location memory and temporal order memory may be naturally connected. Events close in space are also close in time. Incontrast, there are also indications for separate processing mechanisms. Inthispresentationwewillreviewpreviousneuropsychological studies on these two memory domains (cf Kantet al. JINS 2017) and discuss in how far selective disorders in spatiallocation and temporal order do occur.Participants: Thirtysix stroke patients (mean age = 57.1 years) and44 healthy controls (mean age = 55.4 years) participated.Methods: Six objects were shown in a square frame on a computerscreen, either serially (3 s per object) or simultaneously (18 s intotal). Next participants had to reconstruct either the temporal order ofthe presented objects or their spatial locations or do both.Results: Stroke patients performed overall worse than controls. Inparticular left hemisphere patients did worse on temporal ordermemory. Three patients had selective spatial location impairmentsand two patients selective temporal order deficits.Conclusions: Functional dissociations between spatial and temporalorder memory can occur as revealed by lateralization effects inpatients. Selective impairments in single patients further confirmthese dissociation patterns. We will further address in how far sepa-rate as well as connected mechanisms exist for the processing of timeand space.

Cogn Process (2018) 19 (Suppl 1):S49