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Amnesia (or amnaesia in Commonwealth English) is a condition in which memory is disturbed. The causes of amnesia are organic or functional. Organic causes include damage to the brain, through trauma or disease, or use of certain (generally sedative) drugs. Functional causes are psychological factors, such as defense mechanisms. Hysterical post-traumatic amnesia is an example of this. Amnesia may also be spontaneous, in the case of transient global amnesia. This global type of amnesia is more common in middle-aged to elderly people, particularly males, and usually lasts less than 24 hours. Commonwealth English is intended as a collective term for the perceived standard English language used in the Commonwealth of Nations1, applying in theory to Australian English, British English, Caribbean English, Canadian English, Hiberno-English (Irish English)2, Hong Kong English3, Indian English (includes Pakistani English), formal Malaysia English, New Zealand...
Memory is the ability to retain information, a faculty of the brain. ...
Types of amnesia
- In anterograde amnesia, new events are not transferred to long-term memory, so the sufferer will not be able to remember anything that occurs after the onset of this type of amnesia for more than a few moments. The complement of this is retrograde amnesia, where someone will be unable to recall events that occurred before the onset of amnesia. The terms are used to categorise patterns of symptoms, rather than to indicate a particular cause or etiology. Both categories of amnesia can occur together in the same patient, and commonly result from damage to the brain regions most closely associated with episodic/declarative memory: the medial temporal lobes and especially the hippocampus.
- Traumatic amnesia is generally due to a head injury (fall, knock on the head). Traumatic amnesia is often transient; the duration of the amnesia is related to the degree of injury and may give an indication of the prognosis for recovery of other functions. Mild trauma, such as a car accident that could result in no more than mild whiplash, might cause the occupant of a car to have no memory of the moments just before the accident due to a brief interruption in the short/long-term memory transfer mechanism. "Traumatic amnesia" is also sometimes used to refer to long-term repressed memory that is the result of psychological trauma.
- Long-term alcoholism can cause a type of memory loss known as Korsakoff's syndrome. This is caused by brain damage due to a Vitamin B1 deficiency and will be progressive if alcohol intake and nutrition pattern are not modified. It will usually improve little over time even if they are. Other neurological problems are likely to be present.
- Fugue state is also known as dissociative fugue. It is caused by psychological trauma and is usually temporary. The Merck Manual defines it as "one or more episodes of amnesia in which the inability to recall some or all of one's past and either the loss of one's identity or the formation of a new identity occur with sudden, unexpected, purposeful travel away from home" [1].
- Childhood amnesia (also known as Infantile amnesia) is the common inability to remember events from your own childhood. Whilst Sigmund Freud attributed this to sexual repression, others have theorised that this may be due to language development or immature parts of the brain.
- Global amnesia is total memory loss. This may be a defence mechanism which occurs after a traumatic event. Post-traumatic stress disorder can also involve the spontaneous, vivid retrieval of unwanted traumatic memories. It is believed that Mauritania's Silent Flute Man suffered from this condition.
- Posthypnotic amnesia is where events during hypnosis are forgotten, or where past memories are unable to be recalled.
- Source amnesia is a memory disorder in which someone can recall certain information, but they do not know where or how they obtained it.
Anterograde amnesia is a form of amnesia where new events are not transferred to long-term memory, so the sufferer will not be able to remember anything that occurs after the onset of this type of amnesia for more than a few moments. ...
Retrograde amnesia is a form of amnesia where someone will be unable to recall events that occurred before the onset of amnesia. ...
Etiology (alternately aetiology, aitiology) is the study of causation. ...
Episodic memory, or autobiographical memory, is the explicit memory of events. ...
Declarative memory is the aspect of memory that stores facts and events. ...
The temporal lobes are part of the cerebrum. ...
The location of the hippocampus in the human brain. ...
Head injury is a trauma to the head, that may or may not include injury to the brain (see also brain injury). ...
A repressed memory, according to some theories of psychology, is a memory (often traumatic) of an event or environment which is stored by the unconscious mind but outside the awareness of the conscious mind. ...
Korsakoffs syndrome (aka Korsakoffs psychosis, amnesic-confabulatory syndrome), is a continuum of Wernickes encephalopathy, though a recognised episode of Wernickes is not always obvious. ...
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In psychology, a fugue state (aka psychogenic fugue or dissociative fugue) is a state of mind where a person forgets their personal identities, details of their past lives, and sometimes flee to an entirely different location. ...
The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy (often referred to simply as The Merck Manual) is one of the worlds most widely used medical textbooks. ...
In psychology, childhood amnesia refers to the inability of people to remember their earliest childhood experiences. ...
Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud [] (May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology, based on his theory that unconscious motives determine behavior, that particular kinds of unconscious thoughts and memories, especially sexual and aggressive ones, are the source of neurosis...
Language development is a process that starts early in human life where a person goes onto acquire language by learning it as it is spoken and by mimicry. ...
Defence mechanisms (British spelling; Defense mechanisms in American English) are a set of unconscious ways to protect ones personality from unpleasant thoughts and realities which may otherwise cause anxiety. ...
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a term for the psychological consequences of exposure to, or confrontation with, stressful experiences which involve actual or threatened death, serious physical injury, or a threat to physical and/or psychological integrity, and which the person experienced as highly traumatic. ...
Hypnosis is popularly understood to be a psychological condition in which an individual may be induced to exhibit apparent changes in behaviour or thought patterns - in particular an increase in suggestibility and subjective feelings of relaxation. ...
Psychogenic Amnesia is a form of amnesia popularized by popular culture, particularly film. ...
Popular culture, or pop culture, is the vernacular (peoples) culture that prevails in any given society. ...
Source amnesia is an explicit memory disorder in which someone can recall certain information, but they do not know where or how they obtained it. ...
As source amnesia prohibits recollection of the context-specific information surrounding facts in experienced events, there is also the inclusive case of confusion concerning the content or context of events, a highly attributable factor to confabulation in brain disease. ...
Gisli Gudjonsson is Professor of Forensic Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London. ...
Amnesia in fiction Amnesia is a common motif in fiction. Anterograde amnesia features in the movie Memento, and lacunar amnesia features in the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Anterograde amnesia is a form of amnesia where new events are not transferred to long-term memory, so the sufferer will not be able to remember anything that occurs after the onset of this type of amnesia for more than a few moments. ...
Memento is a film written and directed by Christopher Nolan based on his brother Jonathans short story Memento Mori. It stars Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Joe Pantoliano. ...
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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a 2004 romance film from Focus Features that uses a science fiction element to explore the nature of memory and love. ...
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