I hope I don’t spoil anything, but the premise of this movie is a woman gets into a car accident causing damage to the part of her brain that processes short term memory into long term memory. The only long term memory that stays with her is what happened before the accident. She can only keep new memories for one day, and starts over the next day with a clean slate believing it’s the day after the accident.
But does memory work that way? I thought short term memory only stores a couple minutes worth of information, and after that it goes into long term memory. What’s the Straight Dope on this?
no its not believable, but it makes a very convenient movie premise. From what I understand basically everything you see about amnesia in movies is total BS.
Don’t know what anterograde amnesia is, but I agree it does work very well for the movie. ITOH the move Momento is much closer to real like. I have a friend who had a massive heart attack (and a stroke at the same time I think I heard) and to top it all off he was up on a ladder when it happened. Anyways. This was over a year ago. He still remembers people, places, events etc that happened BEFORE the accident, but you could go spend an hour talking to him walk out for a drink of water and when you come back in he’ll think you just go there for the first time. He doesn’t remember his fathers death, he still mad at all of his friends for not visiting him while he was in the hospital for a month even though at least one of his friends was there almost around the clock. Lots of other strange quirks like that. I guess this doesn’t really answer the question, unless the question was had more to do with momento then 50 First Dates.
I remember some documentary refering to such a case. I don’t remember at all what was the cause, but the guy was indeed unable to process anything in long term memory, hence couldn’t remember anything of what had hapenned since whatever event that caused his condition. Any new information would be quickly erased from his memory.
The only things I remember about this case : if I’m not mistaken, he was a british man, was married, and had this condition for a long time (at least 10 years, maybe much more).
I remember it because I thought then (ad often thought since) that it must be an absolute nightmare. I mean, I assume the members of his family have to tell him all the time what happened to him, hence he must “discover” maybe several times a day that he has completely forgotten everything that happened during the last decade, he probably doesn’t know who his suddenly grown children are, etc. Though I seem to remember he isn’t completely unaware that he has some condition that mess up with his memory.
Maybe a google-savy poster will be able to find out something about this case.
It sounds like that’s exactly what your friend has. It’s not identified by name, but that’s what Leonard has in Memento.
The movie may be much too cute about it, but it doesn’t sound completely unbelievable. People with anterograde amnesia are unable to form new memories, which is pretty much the problem Drew Barrymore’s character has. From trailers, I got the impression that she lives a whole day without a problem and then forgets it at night. The movie falls down there, since I’m pretty sure that could never happen. It’s much too neat and clean. Memento, where the character basically forgets where he is and why every couple of minutes, is more realistic.
In one of Oliver Sacks’ books he mentions such a man, who due to some illness or accident can remember old things before the event, but can only remember newer things for a few minutes at best. I don’t remember the exact details of the story, but I think it’s in “The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat”.
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Well, there’s Korsakoff’s Disease, usually seen in alcoholics, where severe thiamine deficiency leaves a permanent inability to transfer anything from short-term into long-term memory. The patients usually remember their lives pretty clearly until the disease was activated, but anything that happened longer than 4 or 5 minutes ago is lost. One man was continually surprised every time he looked in a mirror and saw a 70 year old man looking back; in his mind he was still in his 30’s.
I saw a documentary about the mind which included a segment on either the same case or similar one on public television. The man wrote a lot down, and described it as constantly having the sensation of waking up. Every time his wife came in the room, he gave her a big emotional welcome as though he hadn’t seen her for months.
I had a friend in college who had a closed head injury and had the same problem for a day or two. He would pick up a Time magazine, remark on the cover story and read it. Then half hour later he would do the same thing like he was seeing it for the first time.
This one I can answer with an ancedote.
My brother was in a car accident in 1986 and now has antegrade amnesia. He remembers me as his teenage sister. He doesn’t recognize me as an adult. When I tell him who I am, he seems to believe me, but if I walk away for a few minutes, we have to do it all over. He does remember some things from after the accident now, so it seems that the short term is being stored, but isn’t accessible until it can translate to long term. WAG.
The other aspect that the movie doesn’t account for, is that he nearly died. He was in the ICU for 3 weeks, in the acute care hospital 10 weeks, then in rehab for 4 years. He now lives in a group home. His wife tried to take him home at one point, but he was too dangerous.
So I guess, in a superficial way, the movie is possible, but the reality is heart-breaking, rather than funny.
But anterograde amnesia–a real phenomenon–is similiar, even though it only lasts for a few minutes or so.