Anterograde amnesia - Definition and Overview

Anterograde amnesia is a form of amnesia where new events are not transferred to long-term memory, so the sufferer will not be able to remember anything that occurs after the onset of this type of amnesia for more than a few moments.

Sufferers from "pure" anterograde amnesia will still be able to remember memories laid down before the onset of anterograde amnesia, but will exist in a transient world where anything beyond their immediate attention-span disappears permanently from their consciousness.

Damage to the hippocampus, fornix, or mammillary bodies can result in anterograde amnesia, suggesting that they are involved in the process of laying down long-term memories. A temporary form of anterograde amnesia is also induced by some medications, such as Versed (midazolam).

An account of a sufferer of anterograde amnesia is reported by Oliver Sacks in his book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. In the book, the patient is called "The Ancient Mariner": a man who began forgetting everything from the end of WWII. He does not even know that he suffers from amnesia and believes himself to be decades younger than he is.

Anterograde amnesia has also featured in fiction:

• The 1985 short story A Clean Escape by John Kessel, in which a psychiatrist torments a man suffering from Korsakov's syndrome.
• In the 1994 comedy Clean Slate, Dana Carvey stars as a man whose anterograde amnesia kicks in whenever he falls asleep (typically once a day).
• The 2000 film Memento, presented in short reverse-chronological scenes, gives viewers some feeling for the confusion of its amnesiac protagonist.
• The 2003 animated film Finding Nemo features Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres), a fish whose short-term memory problems cause her innumerable problems helping clownfish Marlin to find his lost son.
• The November 5, 2003 episode "Twilight" of science fiction TV series Star Trek: Enterprise opens with Captain Archer (Scott Bakula) having unknowingly suffered from anterograde amnesia for 12 years.
• The 2004 romantic comedy 50 First Dates casts Adam Sandler as a man who must start anew every day, his wooing of anterograde sufferer Drew Barrymore.

See also

• retrograde amnesia

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