Memory

A couple days ago…. I had the pleasure of helping my cousin find her boyfriends vehicle she had lost. Let me start from the beginning…

(Phone Conversation)
10:30 p.m.
Sheena calls Cassie

Cassie: Yep…
Sheena: What are you doing?
Cassie: On the phone with my mom. I’ll call you back.
Sheena: Ok… call me at my house. I’m leaving my mom’s here in a second.
Cassie: Ok… bye.
Sheena: Bye.

10:45 p.m.
Sheena calls Cassie

Cassie: Yes.
Sheena: (upset) What do I tell you I was going to do?
Cassie: You said you were going to go back to your house. Obviously you didn’t get far… why are you still at your mom’s house?
Sheena: I don’t remember.
Cassie: What do you mean you don’t remember…
Sheena: Well, once I got off the phone with you… I loaded up the car… I went around my mom’s curve and I don’t remember. I do remember waking up in the middle of the woods crawling on the ground.
Cassie: What happen to the car?
Sheena: I don’t know what happened to the car. I have the keys but I don’t know where the car is.


Apparently, the car had gone into a deep ditch which we recovered. Regardless, what I found interesting what the time lapse she had forgot. The ER had said that her brain was swollen. This was caused by the impact of the steeling wheel to the head. Why did this memory loss occur?

What researchers do know is that the brain stores different types of information in different places. Memories are divided up into three types:
• Immediate memory - which takes a mental snapshot of raw stimuli corresponding to sounds, sights, smells or tastes.
• Short-term memory- where sensory information is organized and co-ordinated. For example, the prior events of the accident had been forgotten because of this short-term memory.
• Long-term memory- which forms a permanent database of memories. For example, Sheena making her way home was stored in the long-term memory.
It’s also possible that she had anterograde amnesia. This is when an individual’s memory of events before the accident is clear. We have to remember that not all memories are treated equally. But because she was able to make it home this didn’t affect her Long-term memory. Long-term memory is rarely affected, but short-term memories, which have not yet been permanently imprinted on our consciousness, are often lost.