> 当時の **関係者何人かにあたって**
> 記憶を確かめてみたが、人の記憶の欠落部分というのは、捏造で補われる仕組みになっているらしく、共通の体験が、しばしば、お互いに矛盾する記憶になっていることに
> **驚かされた** 。

  1. What does “にあたって” mean there?
  2. “驚かされた” is referring to what/whom exactly?
  3. Does “関係者何人か” mean “Some people of the authorized personnel”?
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2012-11-05T20:16:43.823
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question
grammar translation meaning verbs expressions
Questions about 〜にあたって, 驚かされた, and 関係者何人か
The whole sentence basically translates to something like

> (I) Tried to verify the memories of the related parties of/at the time, but
> I was surprised to learn that when it comes to the "holes" in the human
> memory, their recollections of the same/shared experience were inconsistent
> with each other, almost as if it was all setup -- (the memories) fabricated
> to complement one another.

  * `関係者何人か` means "several of the people related to <whatever the context is about>".

  * The `驚かされた` is referring to whoever "speaking" that sentence; presumably the person that questioned these people about their memories of whatever happened.

I know what `〜にあたって` means when it has the sense of `〜の時`, but that doesn't
make sense here. So I'm not sure why it is used in this sentence.
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2012-11-05T20:42:34.400
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To supplement @istrasci's answer:

あたる here is [the 4th entry in the article on goo
辞書](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/jn2/4694/m0u/%E3%81%82%E3%81%9F%E3%82%8B/),
basically "investigate" or "observe".
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2012-11-06T00:51:06.000
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