Anterograde amnesia
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In anterograde amnesia (also known as ecmnesia), the ability to remember new contents of consciousness is massively reduced. New things can only be retained in the memory for one to two minutes before they are forgotten again.
Reasons are the failure of the essential neuron circuit in the limbic system (Papez circuit) or the loss of neurons in the nucleus basalis Meynert (Alzheimer's disease).
Anterograde amnesia often occurs in combination with retrograde amnesia - e.g. in post-traumatic amnesia with loss of consciousness due to concussion, whereby anterograde amnesia occurs during the period of confusion after awakening and a gap in memory regarding the events immediately prior to the traumatic event cannot be closed either (retrograde amnesia). Anterograde amnesia is present in the context of an amnesic syndrome, very often combined with severe retrograde amnesia, which not infrequently extends over decades, in Korsakow's syndrome, which affects about 5% of all chronic alcoholics. Above all, episodic memory (autobiographical memory) - with intact general knowledge and intelligence - is severely impaired, which often leads to confabulation, an objectively false statement, caused by a distorted memory or malfunction in the recall of memory contents, of whose correctness the person making the statement is nevertheless convinced and with which he unconsciously bridges memory gaps.
Generally, benzodiazepines and other hypnotics also cause anterograde amnesia. Originally, when triazolam (trade name: Halcion) was administered, it was discovered that patients no longer remember events from the time under the influence of the drug. Accordingly, this was termed the "Halcion effect". It may be medically desirable for planned surgery. For this purpose, for example, midazolam (Dormicum) is used as a premedication because of this effect and for anxiolysis.
Patient H.M. (1953)
In 1953 the patient H.M. had his hippocampi and tonsillar nuclei removed bilaterally (bilateral medial lobectomy of the temporal lobe) because of life-threatening epilepsy; his epilepsy was largely cured, but he suffered from total anterograde amnesia for the rest of his life.
Anterograde amnesia in art
In the film Memento by Christopher Nolan, the protagonist suffers from anterograde amnesia. So that the viewer can better put himself in his place, the film is told achronologically.
Other movies in which characters suffer from anterograde amnesia include 50 First Dates, Hibernators, and Me. May. Can't. Sleep.
In the visual novel ef - a fairy tale of the two. the girl Chihiro suffers from anterograde amnesia with a memory duration of 13 hours since she was twelve years old.
