Anterograde amnesia

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Classification according to ICD-10
R41.1	Anterograde amnesia
ICD-10 online (WHO version 2019)

In anterograde amnesia (also ekmnesia , English ecmnesia ) the memory for new consciousness contents is massively reduced. So new things can only be retained in the mind for a minute or two before they are forgotten again.

Reasons are the failure of the essential neuron circle in the limbic system ( Papez circle ) or the death of the neurons in the nucleus basalis Meynert ( Alzheimer's disease ).

Anterograde amnesia often occurs in combination with retrograde amnesia - e.g. B. in post-traumatic amnesias with loss of consciousness due to concussion , whereby an anterograde amnesia occurs during the period of confusion after awakening and a memory gap with regard to the events immediately before the traumatic event cannot be closed (retrograde amnesia). Anterograde amnesia is part of an amnestic syndrome, very often linked to severe retrograde amnesia, which often extends over decades, in Korsakoff's syndrome , which affects around 5% of all chronic alcoholics. Above all, the episodic memory (autobiographical memory) is - with intact general knowledge and intelligence - severely impaired, which often leads to confabulation , an objectively incorrect statement, caused by a distorted memory or malfunction in the recall of memory contents, but the telling person depends on their correctness is convinced and with which he unconsciously bridges memory gaps.

In general, benzodiazepines and other hypnotics also cause anterograde amnesia. When Triazolam (trade name: Halcion) was administered, it was originally discovered that patients no longer remember events from the time they were under the influence of the drug. Accordingly, this was called the "Halcion Effect". It may be medically desirable for planned operations. Midazolam (Dormicum) , for example, is used for this purpose because of this effect and for anxiolysis as a premedication .

Patient HM (1953)

Because of life-threatening epilepsy, the hippocampi and tonsils were removed from both sides of the patient HM in 1953 (bilateral medial lobectomy of the temporal lobe ); 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 of Christopher Nolan the protagonist suffers from anterograde amnesia. The film is told achronologically so that the viewer can better empathize with him.

Other films in which people suffer from anterograde amnesia include 50 First Dates , Winter Sleeper and Me. May. Not. Sleep.

In the visual novel ef - a fairy tale of the two. the girl Chihiro has suffered from anterograde amnesia since she was twelve due to an accident with a memory duration of 13 hours.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ekmnesia . In: Dagmar Reiche (Ed.): Roche Lexicon Medicine . 5th edition. Urban & Fischer, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-437-15156-8 , pp.  495 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
2. ^ Robert-Benjamin Illing: Stations of brain research through the millennia. Retrieved September 26, 2016 . 

This article is about a health issue. It is not used for self-diagnosis and does not replace a diagnosis by a doctor. Please note the information on health issues !