Patients with amnesia lose their memory is not like in the movies

Most often, the memory of life before the disease sohranyaetsya



We've all seen movies about people who have lost their memory - they do not know who they are, their names, where they live and what they do. Of course, this is a great opportunity to prepare some conspiracy, but in most cases the amnesia is manifested quite differently.

There are two basic types of amnesia. Anterograde amnesia means that a person can no longer form new memories: everything that happened after the events leading to amnesia, such as an accident or illness, immediately forgotten.

When retrograde amnesia human brain can create new memories but does not keep the old, and that is what we seemed to see in the movies. But the filmmakers are usually wrong is exactly what the disease affects memory.

Most people suffering from retrograde amnesia, the disease affects short-term memory. In the long-term memories that have been with you most of my life and rooted not only in the brain but also in personality, save a lot of chances. These include, for example, your name, and then, who are you, many suffering from amnesia people remember the details of his childhood, but do not remember what they ate for dinner.

In some cases, there are other symptoms that are not so widely known. A person may remember the event itself, but do not know when exactly it happened. For example, the patient believes his decade celebrated yesterday, although he was already over 50. In view of the confusion and loss of orientation in time often have false memories: a person remembers events that never happened, because the brain creates its own memories to replace missing.

The idea that a man loses his memory, and then the memories are slowly returning to it, is fundamentally wrong. Man often has no idea about the lost memories, but when they come back, he does not even notice that they all lost.

The most common causes of amnesia also less dramatic than it is in the movies. The usual reason - a stroke or other diseases, because that restricts access of oxygen to the brain. To amnesia can cause heart attacks, severe asthma, or other respiratory diseases, as well as the constant inhalation of uncharacteristic for the atmosphere gas.

Of course, a head injury in an accident or extreme stress can also cause amnesia, but in real life it does not happen as often as in the movie.

via factroom.ru

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