Neuropsychologia 44 (2006) 2792–2805 How children suffering severe amnesic syndrome acquire new concepts? Sylvie Martins a,b,c,d,e , B´ ereng` ere Guillery-Girard a , Isabelle Jambaqu´ e b , Olivier Dulac c,d , Francis Eustache a,∗ a Inserm, EPHE, Universit´ e de Caen, Unit´ e E0218, GIP Cyceron, CHU Cˆ ote de Nacre, 14033 Caen Cedex, France b Universit´ e Paris Descartes, Laboratoire Cognition et Comportement, CNRS.FRE-2987, Paris, France c Inserm U663, Service de Neurologie et M´ etabolisme, Hˆ opital Necker-Enfants Malades, Paris d Universit´ e Paris Descartes, Necker, Paris, France e Service Hospitalier Fr´ ed´ eric Joliot, D´ epartement de Recherche M´ edicale, CEA, Orsay, France Received 2 March 2005; received in revised form 21 March 2006; accepted 21 May 2006 Available online 25 July 2006 Abstract Recent studies revealed that children with developmental amnesia acquired new semantic information. However, they failed to investigate the growth of such knowledge during childhood, and they did not bring evidence concerning the putative role of residual episodic memory in semantic acquisition. This prospective study sought to clarify this issue by assessing both semantic and episodic memory in two amnesic children (RH and KF) with different neuropsychological profiles. We thus applied errorless semantic learning and vanishing cues methods, together with assessments of episodic memory using original recognition tasks within the same protocol. Results demonstrated learning and long-lasting maintenance of multicomponent concepts (comprising labels, categories and features) in both amnesic children. Importantly, episodic memory assessments revealed differential residual abilities in these children, which may account for their respective profiles of semantic acquisition. Thus, RH, who demonstrated residual episodic abilities, acquired normally. However, the learning of KF, who had a massive impairment of episodic memory, remained slower than her controls. In conclusion, even though an episodic impairment may slacken new semantic learning, our research provides new evidence for the de novo acquisition of semantic concepts in childhood amnesic syndrome and strengthens the idea that semantic learning can occur without any recruitment of episodic memory. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Concept learning; Amnesia; Child; Recollection; Episodic memory; Semantic memory 1. Introduction Neuropsychology and functional imaging have markedly improved our understanding of human memory and led to the development of several hierarchical models. Among them is Tul- ving’s Serial–Parallel–Independent (SPI) model, which is based on five types of memory, all closely linked (Tulving, 1995). In particular, Tulving distinguishes between episodic and semantic memory. Episodic memory is considered to be the most highly developed form of memory in terms of phylogeny and ontogeny. It refers to “memory for personally experienced events” and includes the “autonoetic awareness of one’s experiences in the continuity of subjectively apprehended time that extends both backward into the past [...] and forward into the future”. ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 2 31 06 51 97; fax: +33 2 31 06 51 98. E-mail address: neuropsycho@chu-caen.fr (F. Eustache). Semantic memory is regarded as “memory for general facts,” associated with “one’s noetic awareness of the existence of the world and objects, events, or other regularities in it” (Tulving, 2001). According to this author, the hippocampus is necessary for remembering ongoing life experience (i.e., episodic mem- ory), but not necessary for the acquisition of factual knowledge (i.e., semantic memory), which can notably be mediated by the surrounding mediotemporal structures (i.e., the entorhinal, perirhinal and parahippocampal cortex) (Tulving & Markowitsh, 1998). Conversely, Squire and colleagues propose that episodic and semantic memory depend on declarative memory and oper- ate in a parallel manner. Hence, episodic and semantic memory may rely on a common neural network (i.e., the medial tem- poral lobe and diencephalic regions). Consequently, a cerebral lesion in these structures may lead to a proportionate impair- ment of both episodic and semantic memory (Squire & Zola, 1998). These two conceptions thus imply strongly different assumptions in amnesic syndromes. The former predicts that 0028-3932/$ – see front matter © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2006.05.022