Friday, March 9, 2012

Retrograde Amnesia Questions?

So I'm writing a story and I need some information. It's a love story, and what happened was the guy and the girl were together, both in collage, and they were in love.. not the annoying fake thing that some teenagers think they have, but the real, true love that can never die that's rare in kids but possible. But he has about twenty million things to do and never has time, so for her sake he breaks up with her, both devastated, because he wants her to be free and not kept locked up, because they can only see each other like once a weekend. Long story short, she gets upset, starts running and ends up slipping and hitting her head, getting TBI (traumatic brain injury) and loosing her memory.



I was wondering if it is possible to loose all and every single memory in your life ever, but still remember all the things you've ever learned? You can remember the American Revolution facts, and who Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is, and how to do algebra and geometry and how to explain the science of digestion etc. So you wouldn't remember your name, or your birthday, or your family, or your friends, or what you did yesterday or two years ago, but you could remember a random list of names of people, Like Anna, Beth, Sam, Joe, Katie, Kelly etc, and the names of the months and what not.



Along with the above, I was wondering if you could keep muscle memory things. If you lost your memory, could you remember how to tie your shoes, play piano/guitar, typing, texting, writing, flipping a page of paper etc.



And finally, the most unlikely, is it possible that after loosing your memory as explained above, if you had been depressed when you had your memory, that you'd still feel depressed after loosing it. So if my dog died and I was failing classes and was gonna get kicked out of my dream classes, and I lost my memory, would I still feel this.. ominous depression just looming over me. Is it the same with love? If I loved someone for sooooo long and felt such a deep connection that it was impossible to give them up, then lost your memory, could you still feel a connection with them even if you don't know them?



Thank you for reading, and PLEEASE answer all my questions :) Have a nice day, best of wishes!Retrograde Amnesia Questions?
Yes, there are two types of memory - semantic and autobiographical. So you could lose autobiographical memory and forget who you are, who your family/friends are, what has happened to you in the past, what experiences you have gone through. But still have intact semantic memory, and be able to remember facts, dates, skills and theoretical knowledge. Plus procedural memory (how to ride a bike, tie your shoelaces, peel an orange) can also be retained even when you have lost memory for facts or information.



This type of pattern is very uncommon but it can happen in certain types of brain tumours or injuries

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