Extraordinary Memory Events and Disorders

1. Interference refers to the loss of information from memory because of competition from additional incoming information.
2. Retroactive inhibition refers to interference with retention of old information due to acquisition of new information.
3. Proactive inhibition refers to interference with retention of new information due to retention of previous information.
4. Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage, disease, or psychological trauma.
5. Retrograde amnesia is a loss of memory-access to events that occurred, or information that was learned, before an injury or the onset of a disease.
6. Anterograde amnesia is a loss of the ability to create new memories after the event that caused the amnesia, leading to a partial or complete inability to recall the recent past, while long-term memories from before the event remain intact.
7. Agnosia is the inability to process sensory information. Often there is a loss of ability to recognize objects, persons, sounds, shapes, or smells while the specific sense is not defective nor is there any significant memory loss.
8. Source amnesia is the inability to remember where, when or how previously learned information has been acquired, while retaining the factual knowledge.
9. A source-monitoring error is a type of memory error where a specific recollected experience is incorrectly determined to be the source of a memory.
10. False memory syndrome describes a condition in which a person's identity and relationships are affected by memories that are factually incorrect but that they strongly believe.
11. A flashbulb memory is a highly detailed, exceptionally vivid snapshot of the moment and circumstances in which a piece of surprising and consequential (or emotionally arousing) news was heard.
12. Cryptomnesia occurs when a forgotten memory returns without it being recognized as such by the subject, who believes it is something new and original.
13. The misinformation effect happens when a person's recall of episodic memories becomes less accurate because of post-event information.
14. Confabulation is a memory disturbance, defined as the production of fabricated, distorted or misinterpreted memories about oneself or the world, without the conscious intention to deceive.
15. Suggestibility is the quality of being inclined to accept and act on the suggestions of others. A person experiencing intense emotions tends to be more receptive to ideas and therefore more suggestible.
16. Absent-mindedness is where a person shows inattentive or forgetful behaviour. It can have various causes including a low level of attention, intense attention to a single object of focus (hyperfocus), or unwarranted distraction of attention.
17. Dementia, also known as senility, is a broad category of brain diseases that cause a long term and often gradual decrease in the ability to think and remember that is great enough to affect a person's daily functioning.
18. Alzheimer's disease accounts for 60% to 70% of cases of dementia. It is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and gets worse over time.




Comparison of a normal aged brain (left) and the brain of a person with Alzheimer’s (right).



19. Neurofibrillary tangles are aggregates of hyperphosphorylated tau protein that are most commonly known as a primary marker of Alzheimer's Disease.
20. Amyloid beta denotes peptides of 36-43 amino acids that are crucially involved in Alzheimer's disease as the main component of the amyloid plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer patients.
21. Sundowning is a psychological phenomenon associated with increased confusion and restlessness in patients with some form of dementia.


Front and side views of a man portrayed to be suffering from Parkinson’s disease. These are woodcut reproductions (of two collotypes from Paul de Saint-Leger's 1879 doctoral thesis, Paralysie agitante..etc.)

22. Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system mainly affecting the motor system. Dementia commonly occurs in the advanced stages of the disease.
23. Korsakoff's syndrome is a neurological disorder is caused by a lack of thiamine (vitamin B1) in the brain, and is also often exacerbated by the neurotoxic effects of alcohol.