Memory and amnesia
Memory deficits are extremely common. They can occur for various reasons such as: car accidents, head trauma, viral infection, surgery, and old age. The more common form of memory loss that we tend to think of is amnesia. There are a few types of amnesia, anterograde, retrograde and clinical amnesia. Anterograde amnesia is when the amnesics have memory problems in terms of learning new information post brain injury. The second form of amnesia is retrograde amnesia. Retrograde amnesia is when the person has problems remembering information from before the brain injury. Clinical amnesia tends to affect both memory for events that happened prior to injury (retrograde memory) and learning new information (anterograde memory), although relatively selective impairments can be found. The severity can vary from case to case and it mainly from damage in and around the medial temporal lobes.
Amnesia and Movies
I am sure most of us can think about it and recall a movie (we are using memory recall everyday!) they have scene where the main character has some sort of memory deficit or amnesia. Lets take a look at one movie where the main character has a severe memory deficit. Can you identify what his problem is??
Momento Memory Scene: Will you remember me?
If you said total anterograde amnesia than you got it right! Anterograde amnesia prevents the main character, Leonard, from forming new memories ever since his accident. He received a head injury while intervening in a confrontation to protect his wife. Leonard remembers the accident but is unable to form short-term memories ever since that day. Each day he wakes up unable to remember anything from before his accident.
Amnesia and Violence
There are selective difficulties in amnesia. Particularly if retrograde amnesia is organic (from brain injury) or psychogenic origin related to extreme stress. There has been large controversy over whether psychogenic amnesia can arise after committing a violent crime. People who commit violent crimes sometimes claim that they have no recollection of doing it. While amnesia can damage the ability to form new memories, previous skills learned before the accident are expected to be preserved. (In Jason Bourne’s Case from The Bourne Identity, super flying martial arts skills/ language skills/ weaponry skills)
Amnesia is often depicted in movies with characters losing their identities or changing personalities. This is not the case with amnesia from a neurlogical origin. With neurological brain damage, usually to damage to the; medial temporal lobes, hippocampus, and orbitofrontal regions. When damage occurs to these regions, one’s sense of identity is preserved and they are usually able to accurately reflect on their own personality traits. Therefore, if you ever see someone doing anything violent, make sure to check there brain anatomy. If that is in tact, maybe check their BAC!
References:
Youtube.com: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgGf5X8-j1s
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/bourne/images/7/7e/Jason_Bourne.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20080716210458
Ward, Jamie. The Student’s Guide to Cognitive Neuroscience. 3rd Edition (2015)