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Retrograde and Anterograde Amnesia Essay examples

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Retrograde and Anterograde Amnesia

"Darling, what did you say was Sue's number?"
"I don't remember stripping at Dan's birthday party last year!"
"No officer, I don't know what happened after the accident. I can't even remember my name."

Amnesia is the partial or complete loss of memory, most commonly is temporary and for only a short period of time. (1). There are various degrees of amnesia with the most commonly occurrence being either retrograde or anterograde amnesia. Prior to my research into this subject I did not know much about amnesia besides what is portrayed in the Disney movie Anesthesia in which Anesthesia cannot remember her traumatic childhood. While I recognize that there is a huge difference between forgetting …show more content…

555-2695. Okay, 555-2695. 555-2596, 555-2965. Wait, what did you say the number was again?

This is an example of short-term memory.

Long-term memory is the information we retain after a day, two weeks, or ten years. (4).

"In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue."

This is an example of long-term memory as almost every child is asked to commit this fact to memory.

So, what does all this have to do with amnesia? Well, I'm glad you asked. Information flows in through the middle of our brain and branches out like a tree. Before that information goes to different areas, it goes through a channeling/filter system. In this regard, the brain is like a mailroom - this information goes into this box, and that letter goes into that box. (4). In order for short-term memory to become long-term memory, it must go through a process know as consolidation. During consolidation, short-term memory is repeatedly activated - so much that certain chemical and physical changes occur in the brain, permanently "embedding" the memory for long- term access. It is believed that consolidation takes place in the hippocampi, located in the temporal-lobe regions of the brain. Medical research indicates that it is the frontal and temporal lobes that most often damaged during head injury. (3).

As the amnesiac recovers, he or she usually recalls older memories first, and then more recent memories. (3). However, memories tend to return like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle; these bits

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