Amnesia

Amnesia

Judy Chen

Amnesia is a type of dissociative psychological disordered associated with the inability to recall information that was stored in the memory. Amnesia is basically referring the lost of memory usually caused by trauma. Amnesia is a serious disorder which should have been taken seriously since it is an early symptom of Alzheimer’s diseases. The actual cause of amnesia varies into either organic or psychogenic. Amnesia is often classified into different types depending on the cause.

Organic amnesia is type of cause of amnesia due to head juries, stoke, substance abuses, brain lesions, surgery, and etc. anterograde is this type of amnesia since its causes were organic. Unlike organic amnesia, the causes of psychogenic amnesia were psychological, it relates to stress, emotional distress emotional trauma, and etc. organic amnesia may happen to be the secondary cause of psychogenic amnesia.

Anteograde amnesia is a type of amnesia referring to a memory loss in short-term memory. It means the inability to process newly encountered information into memory. People who suffered anteograde amnesia probably find themselves constantly forgetting a set of information. Since the event or information won’t be able store in to short-term memory then it will not be able to be transformed into long-term memory. New information must go trough the hippocampus before being transferred into long-term memory. The damage to the hippocampus in the limbic system may cause anteograde amnesia.

Retrograde amnesia is another type of amnesia characterized by the loss of pre-existing memories meaning the inability to retrieve past memories into conscious mind. The amount of memory loss varies among the severity of the different cases. Unlike anteograde amnesia, people who suffer from retrograde amnesia may have a hard time recalling one’s own identity. Retrograde amnesia could be temporary or permanent depending on the different types of brain injuries encountered....