selective sparing of topographical memory the case of a 61 year old patient with picks disease involving predominantly the left temporal lobe who has been studied over a 5 year period is reported she presented with a grave impairment of both verbal and nonverbal memory functions her nonverbal memory deficits included profound impairments on the recognition of unfamiliar faces and the recall of abstract designs remarkably her visual recognition memory performance for unknown buildings landscapes and outdoor scenes was preserved strikingly her ability to recall familiar routes and learn new ones through a complex virtual reality town was also entirely normal this seems to be the first case documenting the selective preservation of topographical memory in the context of severe nonverbal and verbal memory impairments these findings imply that topographical memory and nonverbal memory are subserved by separable neural systems