Week 6 - Amnesia

Retrograde amnesia

Forgetting things from earlier. Loss of existing memories.

Anterograde amnesia

Forgetting what has just happened. Loss of memory for events occurring “in front” of.

Retrieval failure

Enduring memories of experiences are created, but access to them is impaired.

Consolidation failure

Enduring memories of current experiences are not created.

Standard Consolidation Theory

This theory states that the consolidation of memories occurs over a long period of time, with the hippocampus “handing over” ownership of memories to cortex. Ultimately, memories become independent of the hippocampus.

Temporally graded retrograde amnesia

Standard Consolidation Theory (SCT) predicts this type of amnesia (Ribot’s Law) with hippocampal damage.

Multiple Trace Theory

This theory states that the consolidation of new memories occurs over a long period of time, with the hippocampus creating a new schematised trace each time a memory is recollected.

Non-graded retrograde amnesia

Multiple Trace Theory (MTT) explains  this type of amnesia.