The Mysteries of Amnesia

Although many of us associate amnesia with some sort of accident or similar trauma, there are a number of disorders that can lead to amnesia, all of which can affect the brain skills of those who suffer from amnesia. But just how does amnesia affect people and how we can unlock the mysteries of amnesia?
Amnesia is caused by a number of disorders and results in memory loss to some degree. It could result from a tumour or a stroke or even be psychologically based as the brain tries to shut away bad memories.
The Imagination Link
Even though amnesia is known as a type of memory loss – associated with past events – it actually also does relate to future events as well. One recent study found that people who have amnesia could lose their imaginations along with their memories. But just how does this happen and what does it mean for people who suffer from amnesia?Researchers think that it ultimately means those with amnesia are truly living in the present moment in time. If you think about struggling to remember past events along with imagining future ones, you are really in a sense forced to live from moment to moment.
Forming New Memories
In this recent research, scientists looked at patients who had severe amnesia and couldn't form new memories. Most had no detailed recollection of things that had happened throughout their lives. When researchers tried to get the patients to picture different scenarios and then describe what they experienced, patients came up with very disjointed descriptions of what they could imagine.While they could describe some bits, they couldn't actually put the entire experience and picture together. So if asked to imagine being on a nice beach, they might be able to say there was an ocean but they couldn't describe an entire scenario with any level of detail.