50 First Dates: What Is Anterograde Amnesia?

This can be seen when Jane asked her therapist for specific toys and then could not remember ever asking for them. The memory system in the hippocampus and the amygdala is very important, the brain is constantly being pruned, what is not used is lost.

In Memento, Leonard Shelby, who is the main character of the story, has an anterograde amnesia due to the damage to his hippocampus. In fact, it does not mention which part of his brain is damaged in the movie, but in my opinion, his medial temporal lobe is impaired because of the deficits in long-term memory. He was attacked by one of the assailants that had broken into his house, and after the incident, his new memory can last only for 10 minutes. Though amygdala is located close to the hippocampus, it can be said that amygdala, which is closely related to emotion, is not impaired from the quote, “Just for revenge. That's what keeps me going. It's all I have” (Memento, Christopher Nolan).

In Chapter 12 of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Mr. William Thompson suffered from an extreme case of Korsakov’s, also known as Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome (Sacks, 1985, p. 109). According to Anderson (2010), Korsakoff syndrome can cause serious damage to one’s hippocampus and temporal lobe due to habitual alcoholism, resulting in amnesia (p. 201). Similar to HM (Anderson, 2010, p. 200), Mr. Thompson suffered from anterograde amnesia and could remember nothing for more than a few brief moments (Sacks, p. 109). Anderson (2010) states that anterograde amnesia results in the incapability of creating new memories, leading to fractional or absolute inability to remember something that just happened (p. 201). Yet, one’s long-term memories before the incident remain intact; such as when Mr. Thompson recognized his younger brother, Bob, as he walked by the window (Sacks, 1985, p. 112-113). Mr. Thompson and HM both suffered from anterograde amnesia and could remember some long-term memories but not remember new ones, signifying that the neural makeup involved in making fresh memories are diverse from maintaining past memories (Anderson, 2010, p. 202).

Anterograde Amnesia is the inability to store new information after the brain damage has occurred. (Luke Mastin 2010). Anterograde Amnesia is very rare, in fact there have a few cases where the amnesia was "pure". The symptoms and hardship of the person depend on the cause for the memory loss. Some symptoms of Anterograde Amnesia are partial memory loss, having a hard time recognizing relatives or family, feeling of confusion, difficulty taking in new information, inability to remember familiar places, and difficulty in learning and remembering new things.(PHC Editorial Team 2013) Characteristics of Anterograde Amnesia are abnormally small hippocampi bilaterally and elevated hippocampal water.(Mayo Clinic 2014) There are many ways to recognize

Recollecting some of life’s experiences can be done very accurately at times where we can depict details even after a long period of time. For patient H.M. this is the exact case. Patient H.M. suffered from severe anterograde amnesia. Anterograde amnesia patients quite often show normal memory for events that have occurred prior to the incident. Therefore, making it extremely difficult to recall or store information after the incident has occurred. H.M. had been knocked down by a bicycle at the age of 7, began to have minor seizures at the age of 10, and had major seizures after the age of 16. Patient H.M. had brain surgery in the early 1950’s around the time he had been 27 years old. The surgery had been done to alleviate severe symptoms

In the movie 50 First Dates one of the main characters suffers from the severe condition of anterograde amnesia. The movie is about Henry Roth who is a wildlife veterinarian in Hawaii, meeting Lucy Whitmore a woman who has a short-term memory loss from an auto accident a year earlier. Henry meets Lucy at a local cafe and takes her out on a date. Henry falls in love with Lucy, but there is one problem when she awakens in the morning, she can't remember him or anything that happened that day. Henry must devise a plan to meet Lucy everyday and try to get her to fall in love with him again and again.

Amnesia is characterized as loss of memory, or the failure to recollect certainties or occasions. We have two sorts of recollections: the short-term (late, new) and long haul (remote, old) recollections. Fleeting memory is modified in a piece of the cerebrum called the worldly flap, while long haul memory is put away all through broad nerve cell systems in the transient and parietal projections. In Alzheimer's malady, fleeting memory stockpiling is harmed first.

Hippocampus is a small, curved region, which exists in both hemispheres of the brain and plays a vital role in emotions, learning and acquisition of new information. It also contributes majorly to long term memory, which is permanent information stored in the brain. Although long term memory is the last information that can be forgotten, its impairment has become very common nowadays. The dysfunction is exemplified by many neurological disorders such as amnesia. There are two types of amnesia, anterograde and retrograde. Anterograde amnesia is inability in forming new information, while retrograde refers to the loss of the past memory. As suggested by Cipolotti and Bird (2006), hippocampus’s lesions are

When speaking about memory, one needs to look at the parts of the brain that are

Although the movie, “50 first dates,” was fairly dramatic, it accurately portrays the possible struggles that patients may experience from anterograde amnesia. The main idea of the movie is that the main character Lucy gets into a car accident on the day of her father’s birthday. The accident causes a severe brain injury to her temporal lobe and it leads her to suffer from anterograde amnesia. Because memories of any events occurred after the accident fades away, Lucy wakes up every morning thinking that it is October 13th, the day of a car accident. Lucy’s family helps Lucy to constantly relive the day before her accident to avoid a pain that Lucy may have as she discovers her condition. On the other hand, Henry comes into her life thinking that it is better to update her with important events through

Losing one’s memory can be a mysterious affliction, and the causes can be quite complex. Severe memory loss is introduced in author Oliver Sacks’ collection of stories The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and lectures given by professor Jim Davies can help with understanding of some of the concepts introduced in the book. In chapter two, The Lost Mariner, the patient Jimmie is suffering from aspects of both retrograde and anterograde amnesia, which Davies explained as loss of memory of events or facts learned before an event (the event that caused the amnesia), and loss of ability to create new memories after the event, respectively. In more detail, and in relation to our book (here, the target example), retrograde amnesia would consist of any loss of memory that happened prior to an event, such as an injury or onset of disease in Jimmie’s case. Dr. Davies’ explanation of retrograde amnesia helps to understand Jimmie’s case, where in the year 1975 he is unable to recall any events after 1945. As well, the explanation of anterograde amnesia as including symptoms such as inability to form new memories, learn information or tasks, or to recall the recent past is useful when applied to Jimmie’s experience of not being able to recall events that happened even a few minutes prior. Jimmie’s suffering from both retro and anterograde amnesia, as explained by Sacks, results from Korsakov’s syndrome – a destruction of memory caused by alcoholic

This isn’t even a real condition; however, Barrymore’s symptoms match a real form of amnesia called “anterograde amnesia”. This is surprisingly part of the film that contains some accuracy in terms of psychology. With this type of amnesia, it’s typically caused when a person has some kind of brain damage to a portion of the brain that is partially responsible for the storage of memory. The brain is essentially “stuck in time”. The brain is not able to encode new memories and store those memories. Living with anterograde amnesia would need to be hospitalized so they can be closely monitored. In this movie the character has permanent brain damage sustained from a car accident. She lost the ability to create new memories after the event that caused the amnesia (short term memory loss), however her long-term memories from before the event remain

This was the routine that happened daily until Henry Roth came along. Henry Roth worked as a veterinarian at an aquarium until he could finish his boat that he wanted to sail to Bristol Bay to study walruses, a plan he had for ten years. Henry was a man who had trouble committing to relationships. Henry was known for short-lived relationships with women who were vacationing in Hawaii. Henry walks into a diner one day and spots Lucy sitting alone. After a few visits to this diner Henry finds the courage to talk to Lucy and make a breakfast date. Following their meeting, Henry is informed of Lucy’s ‘condition’ and thinks she’s the perfect girl for him; no commitment since every night she forgets what happened that day. After creating multiple forced encounters, Henry begins to realize he really likes Lucy. Lucy’s father and brother talk to Henry to understands his

Memory is a very important tool to our everyday lives. Without memory, we would not be able to function very productively. You can look at someone suffering with Alzheimer’s disease and see the effects of the inability to make new memories, as well as lost and confused memory. According to what I have read in the textbook, the foundation of our speech and learning is our memory.

Case 1 tells the story of Henry Molaison (HM), a man with no memory. He lost his memory due to the operation of suctioned out the hippocampus to treat his epileptic seizures. At that time, it was not known yet that the hippocampus was essential for making memories. After operation, his seizures were significantly reduced, but Henry suffered a global amnesia. Owen et al. (2007) describes patients with global amnesia as perceptive and attentive but with a total loss of short-term memory and some trouble accessing memories of the recent past. Henry could not learn new things as he quickly forgot everything that he had learned. He could learn at a subconscious level only.