Replaying the Game: Hypnagogic Images in Normals and Amnesics
Robert Stickgold,1*
April Malia,1
Denise Maguire,1
David Roddenberry,1
Margaret O'Connor2
Participants playing the computer game Tetris reported
intrusive, stereotypical, visual images of the game at sleep onset. Three amnesic patients with extensive bilateral medial temporal lobe
damage produced similar hypnagogic reports despite being unable to
recall playing the game, suggesting that such imagery may arise without
important contribution from the declarative memory system. In addition,
control participants reported images from previously played versions of
the game, demonstrating that remote memories can influence the images
from recent waking experience.
1 Laboratory of Neurophysiology, Department of
Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, 74 Fenwood Road, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
2 Memory Disorders Research Center, Boston
University Medical School, Division of Behavioral Neurology, Beth
Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA 02118 USA.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
rstickgold{at}hms.harvard.edu
