Almost any time when you watch a Hollywood action movie, or play an action videogame, you will most likely meet a character suffering from memory loss. This phenomena of memory loss, also known as amnesia, is a complicated neurological mechanism, hiding behind a seemingly simple facade. Amnesia is extremely widespread worldwide, because, unlike popular belief, it can be triggered not only by a head trauma, but also by a number of other factors.
So, what exactly is amnesia? Doctors usually use this term to define a group of mental conditions characterized by a temporary (most often) disturbance or complete loss of the ability to recall stored memories, or memorize something (The Human Memory). The causes of amnesia will be analyzed below; so …show more content…
Although it might be a result of a trauma, there can be other factors causing this condition, including various mental disorders. Anterograde amnesia prevents a person from forming new memories. The memories stored in the brain before the case leading to amnesia can be perfectly preserved, but at some point, it stops memorizing objects, events, etc. around it, leading to the inability to recall the most recent events (those that occurred after the amnesia-causing case). For example, a person who overused alcohol and experienced a blackout will most likely be unable to remember everything that followed the episode of getting drunk, although other memories (such as a person’s name or living place will remain untouched). Another type of amnesia—transient global amnesia—can appear and vanish within a couple of hours. TGA is not studied well enough, but scientists believe it has something to do with a seizure-like contraction of the blood vessels supplying the brain; as a result, a person may “fall out” of the memorization process, losing memories immediately preceding the “seizure,” and those that would be obtained within its course. Yet another type—infantile amnesia—is something that all of us have experienced: it is a natural condition when a …show more content…
It can take different forms—for example, a person might not be able to recall what they have been doing five minutes ago (problems with short-term memory), but would perfectly restore the details of some presidential election that occurred 20 years ago; or, vice versa, a person could live with a memory span of a couple of minutes, completely forgetting everything that goes beyond this time limit. Unlike some people tend to think, amnesia is not the same as dementia: amnesiac memory loss does not affect one’s intelligence or personality. Rather often, people with amnesia understand there is a problem with their memorizing capabilities, and do not lose the adequacy of perception and actions. There are also some other symptoms typical for amnesia: confabulation (a condition when a person unintentionally makes up their memories in order to fill the gap in perception; these memories may be made up completely from scratch, or combined from fragments of real ones) and disorientation (Mayo
So, what exactly is amnesia? Doctors usually use this term to define a group of mental conditions characterized by a temporary (most often) disturbance or complete loss of the ability to recall stored memories, or memorize something (The Human Memory). The causes of amnesia will be analyzed below; so …show more content…
Although it might be a result of a trauma, there can be other factors causing this condition, including various mental disorders. Anterograde amnesia prevents a person from forming new memories. The memories stored in the brain before the case leading to amnesia can be perfectly preserved, but at some point, it stops memorizing objects, events, etc. around it, leading to the inability to recall the most recent events (those that occurred after the amnesia-causing case). For example, a person who overused alcohol and experienced a blackout will most likely be unable to remember everything that followed the episode of getting drunk, although other memories (such as a person’s name or living place will remain untouched). Another type of amnesia—transient global amnesia—can appear and vanish within a couple of hours. TGA is not studied well enough, but scientists believe it has something to do with a seizure-like contraction of the blood vessels supplying the brain; as a result, a person may “fall out” of the memorization process, losing memories immediately preceding the “seizure,” and those that would be obtained within its course. Yet another type—infantile amnesia—is something that all of us have experienced: it is a natural condition when a …show more content…
It can take different forms—for example, a person might not be able to recall what they have been doing five minutes ago (problems with short-term memory), but would perfectly restore the details of some presidential election that occurred 20 years ago; or, vice versa, a person could live with a memory span of a couple of minutes, completely forgetting everything that goes beyond this time limit. Unlike some people tend to think, amnesia is not the same as dementia: amnesiac memory loss does not affect one’s intelligence or personality. Rather often, people with amnesia understand there is a problem with their memorizing capabilities, and do not lose the adequacy of perception and actions. There are also some other symptoms typical for amnesia: confabulation (a condition when a person unintentionally makes up their memories in order to fill the gap in perception; these memories may be made up completely from scratch, or combined from fragments of real ones) and disorientation (Mayo