Anterograde Memory Loss: Inability To Learn New Knowledge
Memorizing a phone number, recognizing someone you know on the street and remembering their name, remembering last summer’s vacation destination… All of these functions are part of a common but very important psychological process: memory.
But when you can’t remember what happened in the past or learn new information, your memory may be damaged. You may even have anterograde memory loss.
Today, the role of memory is appreciated because it saves a lot of time when working properly. People with a “good memory” can solve problems faster if they have already solved them in the past. After all, they have already practiced the process needed to solve the problem.
The same can be said for skills such as swimming, fast writing and cycling. When you learn to make them, you will never forget them, even if you haven’t done them in a long time. Skills can rust a little if you don’t practice them, but you’ll soon get back to the same level you were before.
From this perspective, human memory appears to be responsible for many functions. However, it does not always work at the level we want. Certain memory errors don’t seem very serious, like the one when you forget where you put your key. Sometimes, though, it can be more worrying when, for example, you don’t remember who you just spoke to.
What can be done with memory?
Memory makes us learn, organize, and reinforce information as well as past events. It is closely related to attention span, another common psychological process. The process involves three steps: encoding, storage, and retrieval. Memory loss interferes with memory.
We can think of memory as a three-part psychological process in which we encode information, store it in the brain, and restore it back when needed. Most importantly, the information we learn can be restored when it is not right in front of us. Sometimes we remember things quickly and accurately and sometimes it’s harder.
Studies of memory in the field of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience show that the brain has many memory systems. Each of them, in turn, has its own characteristics, operations, and processes.
Inability to remember or learn new things
Memory loss is diagnosed when a person has severe memory problems. These may include an inability to store new information or remember previously stored information.
Organic memory loss is caused by a physical brain injury caused by illness, injury, or even substance abuse. Dissociative memory loss, on the other hand, is due to psychological factors such as repression and other defenses.
Cases of spontaneous memory loss, such as transient general memory loss, have also occurred. It means sudden memory loss for no apparent reason. This is most common in older men and tends to last less than 20 hours.
Memory loss can also be classified according to the type of memories that a person is unable to recover or form. Anterograde memory loss is the inability to form new memories. Retrograde memory loss is the inability to recall past memories that man was previously able to do.
People with anterograde memory loss can remember things that happened in their youth. But they cannot learn or remember things that happened at the time of the onset of the memory-causing injury.
Korsakoff syndrome
Korsakoff syndrome is the most common of all organic memory losses. It is caused by a deficiency of thiamine in the brain, usually due to chronic alcoholism. It was named after the man who invented it, Sergei Korsakoff.
Korsakoff syndrome is characterized by an acute state of mental confusion and spatial confusion. When it is chronic, this confused state of mind is prolonged.
Outbreaks of Korsakoff syndrome are often followed by acute Wernicken disease or Wernicken encephalopathy. When both appear at the same time, it is called Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome.
The main symptoms of Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome include:
- Ataxia (lack of coordination)
- Ophthalmoplegia (paralysis of the muscles of the eye)
- Polyneuropathy (pain and weakness on both sides of the body in the same areas)
People with Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome also suffer from:
- Confusion about time, place, and people
- Inability to identify family members
- Apathy
- Lack of attention
- The inability to maintain a coherent debate
Retrograde memory loss: forgetting the past
Severe brain injury, whether caused by a fall, accident, or electric shock, can lead to retrograde memory loss. Retrograde memory loss is defined by its inability to remember past events. In many cases, memory loss is eliminated and a person is able to regain their memory gradually. At best, it will come back completely.
Retrograde memory loss usually “removes” memories just minutes before injury. If the blow is really hard, it can affect memories that are months or years old.
Anterograde memory loss: living without a future
Some injuries produce general, lasting memory loss without any other impairment of intelligence-requiring ability. In such cases, the person has no problems with language, perception, or attention. In addition, he retains the skills he had before the injury.
It is incredibly difficult for people with anterograde memory loss to retain new information, but they are able to maintain a conversation. Their RAM is working normally, but after a few minutes they will not be able to remember what just happened.
Thus, people with anterograde memory loss are unable to learn new things (or it is extremely difficult for them). Sometimes they can’t even remember the past information. As if they were living forever in the present moment. The past hardly exists, and they are unable to make plans for the future because they forget them.
However, they can learn new skills, albeit much more slowly than healthy people.
Participating brain regions
One of the major challenges in modern neuroscience is to determine which areas of the brain are involved in anterograde memory loss. It is generally believed to cause brain injury to occur in the hippocampus and medial temporal area.
These areas of the brain act as a conduit into which events and facts are temporarily stored until they can be stored permanently in the frontal lobe. Imagine a hippocampus as storage space for short-term memory.
If it cannot store the data in the right way, it is impossible for the data to reach the front block. It means that the brain is unable to form long-lasting memories. In cases of partial memory loss, memories may form, but only with very little detail.
Although the hippocampus appears to be the major region involved in anterograde memory loss, recent studies have suggested that other brain structures also play a role. Injury to the basal region of the forebrain in particular also appears to interfere with the memory formation process.
This region is responsible for the production of acetylcholine, a substance very important for memory function that initiates and modifies the processes involved in it. The most common type of brain injury in the basal region of the forebrain is an aneurysm, which is usually associated with anterograde memory loss.
The relationship between memory loss and Korsakoff syndrome has suggested a third area that may influence the development of anterograde memory loss. The midbrain area suffers from damage caused by Korsakoff syndrome. Recently, researchers have begun to study the link between the brain and memory loss.
Signs of anterograde memory loss
A clear sign of anterograde memory loss is the poor performance of traditional memory and recognition tests. A few minutes after someone presents a list of 15-20 words, people with anterograde memory loss will only be able to remember a few words.
In addition, most forget words at the beginning and middle of the list, but are able to remember the words at the end of the list in an almost normal way. The same goes for conversations, movies, and TV shows. Daily activities become difficult: a person forgets where he left things, what he has done, and who he has seen.
So it can cause problems if such a person lives with other people, as it is difficult for him or her to have a conversation or remember what he or she talked about with someone else in the past. He gives the impression that he is not fully present.
He talks about people and past events as if they were happening right now. He can’t make plans for the future because he doesn’t even know what he’s going to do the next day. Perhaps that is why he lacks the warmth and intimacy that people normally show when talking about their memories of the past and their hopes for the future.
At the same time, his memory problems can, of course, cause huge problems in his daily life. He or she may need constant care or supervision at home. He when unable to remember things like taking medication or doing multi-step things successfully.
However, he can learn to do other things, such as walking short distances to a store close to home, for example. It seems like he’s able to store a lot of information, just like people with retrograde memory loss.
Can they learn new things?
Gabrieli, Cohen, and Corkin (1983) attempted to answer this question with respect to their patient. They asked him to define words and phrases that people had just begun to use when he already had memory loss. He didn’t do very well, even though he knew what rock and roll was. They also tried to teach him unfamiliar words. Despite a long practice, the only thing he was able to do was combine words with their definition.
There have been other cases as well. A 10-year-old boy with severe anterograde memory loss due to anoxia (lack of oxygen) was unable to develop in reading after the incident. He also survived quite poorly in various semantic memory tests. However, he was able to learn to play computer games just as easily as his peers (Wood, Ebert, & Kinsbourne, 1982).
How can we explain the persistence of certain functions?
Some theories suggest the inclusion of versatile memory systems. While the system responsible for normal operations may remain undamaged with memory loss in certain tests, others will suffer damage. For that reason, performance varies in different tests when compared to the general population.
The distinction between fragmented memory and semantic memory (Tulving, 1972) has led some authors to suggest that semantic memory functions normally in memory loss, which could explain why certain linguistic functions remain intact. Damage to fragmented memory would explain the impairment of memory and recognition functions.
People with memory loss appear to have perfect linguistic functions and perform well in tests involving past knowledge. This means that people acquire all the concepts and rules needed to successfully complete these tests at a very early stage in life.
Summary
If we put aside theories about how a person develops memory loss, the most important thing to remember is that anterograde memory loss is a lack of selective memory that results from brain injury. The biggest problem these people have is the extreme difficulty of storing new information. They are unable to remember new things and have learning difficulties.
However, anterograde memory loss does not affect the memory of past data. All the information stored before the damage is in order and the person can remember it without any problems. But it is also important to remember that the characteristics of anterograde memory loss vary from case to case.
