Psychopathologies of memory: characteristics, types and symptoms

Human beings are made up of memories. What we are is nothing more than what we are capable of remembering and integrating, the experiences that were lived in the past and defined us. That is why memory is such an important and valuable cognitive function.

Some circumstances of life, from the irrepressible passage of time to the appearance of diseases or the irruption of accidents of various kinds, can compromise the way in which it is expressed temporarily or permanent.

In this article we will address the phenomenon of memory psychopathologies, that is, the ways in which it can be altered (both in its ability to recover pieces of information and in any other of its properties).

We will also reserve a space for other mnesic phenomena that can occur in the general population, and that do not suggest any underlying disorder.

• Related article: "Types of memory: how does the human brain store memories?"

memory psychopathology

There are many diseases and situations that can condition the functioning of memory, since it is about

a dimension widely distributed in the brain parenchyma. In this article we will delve into the different forms of amnesia and memory or recognition anomalies, that is, memory psychopathologies.

1. amnesias

The term "amnesia", of Greek origin (and which could be translated as "oblivion"), subsumes a large group of memory disturbances; heterogeneous with regard to its origin, prognosis and clinical expression. Next, each of them will be delved into.

1.1. retrograde amnesia

Retrograde amnesia is perhaps the best known memory problem. Is described as a specific difficulty in evoking events from the past, but the ability to create new memories remains unchanged.

It affects above all the episodic information, or what is the same, the events experienced (while maintaining the semantics, the procedural, etc.). It is usually one of the multiple consequences derived from brain trauma, or dementing diseases that affect large regions of the nervous system.

1.2. anterograde amnesia

Anterograde amnesia is a memory compromise characterized by the difficulty or impossibility of generating new memories from a specific moment. Thus, what is altered is consolidation, or the process that transfers information from the short-term store to the long-term store (where it is fixed for a longer time). The memory of the past remains intact.

Brain lesions in hippocampal structures have been consistently associated with this type of problem, as well as drug or drug abuse (alcohol, benzodiazepines, etc.).

1.3. transient global amnesia

These are acute episodes in which the person suffering from this problem expresses Difficulty remembering events beyond the last ones that happened in your life; although perception, attention and the rest of the cognitive processes are maintained at their basal level of functioning.

Access to more distant memories is often affected as well; but not the name, identity, origin or other basic and consolidated information in strata insights into self-definition (as well as the ability to carry out actions over which I had domain).

The person can be emotionally affected, because they are aware of the deficit that grips them. It is particularly suggestive of this problem the perseveration in the acts and the questions that are formulated to the people who are around, since the answer is forgotten almost immediately. The episode usually resolves within a few hours (less than 24), and the underlying cause remains largely unknown.

1.4. lacunar amnesia

Lacunar amnesia describes the inability to access information about specific events or periods, with very specific time coordinates. The person could remember everything that happened both before and after the events, but never what happened during them. It is associated with punctual laxity of attention span or altered states of consciousness (such as coma), but it is also common in stroke and trauma.

1.5. post traumatic amnesia

Post-traumatic amnesia has an obvious etiology: a blow to the head. Although it can manifest itself in various ways, and have a clinical presentation similar to that described in anterograde/retrograde cases, it has the particularity of being a reliable indicator of the severity of the trauma suffered. In mild cases it can last for just a few minutes, while in severe cases (more than a day) it can become permanent.

1.6. functional amnesia

Functional amnesia describes any memory impairment for which organic cause cannot be identified after carrying out all kinds of explorations, among which neuroimaging tests stand out. On the other hand, a careful assessment of the circumstances in which it develops does allow it to be associated with highly emotionally charged events, which would be the most probable cause. One of the most common cases is post-traumatic stress, although it can also be seen in dissociative disorders (from flight to dissociative identity).

1.7. childhood amnesia

Childhood amnesia is one whose presence is natural during childhood, as a result of incomplete neurological development. The deficient maturation of the hippocampus is implicated in the phenomenon, which prevents the formation of declarative memories.

Despite this circumstance, the early development of the amygdala does facilitate the articulation of a emotional imprint for these events, despite the fact that during adulthood they cannot be described using words exact. It is for this reason that, despite the fact that what happened during the first years cannot be remembered, it can affect us on an emotional level.

2. memory abnormalities

Memory abnormalities are common in the general population, although some of them manifest preferably under the influence of the consumption of certain substances or a pathology of the nervous system central. In the following lines we will explore what they are and what they may be due to.

2.1. incomplete personal recollection

This phenomenon occurs when we coincide with a person with whom we have already done so in the past, and despite the fact that we are aware of such a nuance, we can't identify how we know it (or from where). In this case a memory is produced, although attenuated and incomplete, since part of the information is not available. This is a common experience that is associated with the absence of contextual clues that facilitate the process, that is, when fact of finding the person in an unusual space (different from the one in which we usually locate it).

2.2. feeling of knowing

Is about a feeling (bordering on certainty) that we have knowledge about a specific event, or on a term, although we ultimately fail to prove them. It happens especially with words or concepts, that although they are familiar when we read or hear about them, we cannot evoke their exact meaning. With this, an imprecise recognition is produced, motivated by the morphological relationship of two terms: one really known and another that is believed to be known.

23. Tip of the tongue

The phenomenon of the tip of the tongue (also known as Top of Tongue or simply TOT) describes the extremely uncomfortable sensation that arises seeing ourselves unable to pronounce a specific word, despite knowing it and wanting to use it in the context of a conversation. This phenomenon is more frequent in terms of rare use, although it also occurs in the most common, and tends to be exacerbated under conditions of fatigue or stress. It may become more common, too, as the years go by.

Often the person comes to remember some of the properties of the word he intends to use, such as the beginning or the end, and tries to carry out a subvocalization with the purpose of "finding it". Paradoxically, this effort often inhibits the irruption of such a longed-for word, since it is a reality that very often reveals itself only when we stop thinking about it.

2.4. temporary lagoon

Temporary gaps are moments in life in which, due to a relevant lack of attention, we have not been able to produce an evocable memory of what happened. It can happen while performing an activity automated by habit (driving, cooking, etc.), in such a way that its development would take place while we are thinking about other things, and we do not get to form memories about what happened "in the meantime". It is a kind of self-absorption or even distractibility, in which consciousness of time is lost.

2.5. task verification

Some tasks are carried out in such a routine way that, despite paying attention while doing them, it can be difficult to discriminate whether or not they were actually carried out. This is so because its repetition exerts an interference effect, and the person manifests difficulty in identify if the memory that is in your "head" corresponds to this last occasion or if it is actually the trace of a previous day. The "problem" leads to constant checking of the action (closing a door, turning off the stove, etc.).

2.6. pseudomemory

Pseudomemory is a generic category that includes all those processes in which a false or completely inaccurate memory is evoked. The most common of these is collusion., which consists of the "manufacture" of false memories to fill in the empty spaces of those who (for various reasons) cannot evoke the entirety of any episode lived. The purpose here is, therefore, to give meaning to an experience that lacks meaning due to its incompleteness, like a puzzle that is missing key pieces to solve it.

Another example is fantastic pseudology. In this case, false memories are deliberately created, but cannot be explained by memory gaps, but rather by an unresolved affective need. It would seek to generate "events" consistent with the desire to feel one way or another, which would tend to accentuate its intensity in the event that the interlocutor showed interest in them (until they became totally impossible acts and really fanciful).

Finally, many authors include delusional memories in this category, through which the person forms reminiscences of a past that never took place. However, such a construction makes sense because it links the experience of the present (distorted by delusion) with the past, thus drawing a time line congruent with the content of thoughts and perceptions current.

3. Recognition anomalies

Recognition anomalies are errors in the way in which a memory or a stimulus located in the present is processed, and which could be summarized as false positive recognitions (feeling of "remembering" an event that is being experienced for the first time) or false negative recognitions (perception that something experienced previously appears before our eyes as totally new).

3.1. Deja vu

Déjà vu is a well-known sensation, since practically all of us have been able to experience it at some point. It is the perception that a truly novel situation is burnished with great familiarity., as if it were not the first time that one has traveled through it. In colloquial language, it tends to be expressed as "this sounds familiar" or "I have been here". Over the years, numerous hypotheses have been postulated to explain it, from spiritual to properly scientific, although the reason why it occurs is not yet clear.

In the last times its concurrence with psychiatric disorders has been highlighted, fundamentally depersonalization, as well as in the context of epilepsy or lesions of the temporal cortex. In the case of people without pathology, it is much more brief and less intense.

Finally, there are many people who believe in the possibility that the experience of déjà vu would allow them to predict events particular events that might take place while it is unfolding, a distorted belief that has been coined under the heading of "pseudo-hunch".

• You may be interested in: "Déjà Vu: the strange feeling of experiencing something that has already been experienced before"

3.2. never saw you

Jamais vu is the mirror of déjà vu, so they could be understood as opposites. In the case at hand, the person is facing a situation that they had already experienced at least once, but does not perceive familiarity at all. Thus, despite the fact that he is aware of an identical or very similar previous experience, he values ​​the fact as if it were completely new. It is less common than déjà vu, and can happen to people who are sensitive to slight changes. spatial events that take place in known environments (dissolving as fast as it takes to identify the change).

3.3. cryptomnesia

Cryptomnesia consists of the firm belief that a memory is not such, but that it is an original production. Thus, there is a risk of adopting other people's ideas or reflections as one's own, since its access to memory lacks familiarity and/or recognition. It is common in scientific and artistic fields, and has motivated countless lawsuits over the years for plagiarism or for misuse of intellectual property.