Procedural or muscle memory is remembering how to perform everyday actions like tying shoelaces, writing, or using a knife and fork. Despite his amnesia, therefore, Clive still has much of his semantic memory and retains his humor and intelligence.Ĭlive may not have any episodic memories of his life before the illness, but he has a largely unimpaired procedural memory and some residual learning capacity. Studies show that retrieving episodic and semantic memories activate different areas of the brain. Semantic memory is our general factual knowledge, like knowing the capital of France, or the months of the year. Although the physical location of memory remains largely unknown, scientists believe that different types of memories are stored in neural networks in various parts of the brain. Clive Wearing’s Semantic and Procedural MemoriesĬlive Wearing’s example shows that memory is not as simple as we might think. In spite of his complex amnesia, Clive still has some types of memories that remain intact, including semantic and procedural memory. His memory of emotions associated with Deborah provokes his reactions even in the absence of the episodic memory. But he knows that she is his wife and that he is happy to see her. For him, each meeting with her is the first one. He has no episodic memories of Deborah, and no memory of their life together. Whenever Deborah enters the room, Clive greets her with great joy and affection. In fact, his second wife Deborah is the only person he recognizes. He knows that he used to be a musician, yet he has no recollection of any part of his career.Ĭlive also knows that he has a wife. He is aware, for example, that he has children from a previous marriage, even though he doesn’t remember their names or any other detail about them. He completely lacks the episodic or autobiographical memory, the memory of his personal experience.īut although he can’t remember them, Clive does know that certain events have occurred in his life. Retrograde amnesia is usually gradual and recent memories are more likely to be lost than the older ones.ĭue to his severe case of retrograde amnesia, however, Clive doesn’t remember anything that has happened in his entire life. Retrograde amnesia is a loss of memory of events that occurred before its onset. It restarts as soon as the time span of his short-term memory has elapsed. In a way, his consciousness is rebooted every 30 seconds. It is impossible for him to watch a movie or read a book since he can’t remember any sentences before the last one.īecause he has no memory of any previous events, Clive constantly thinks that he has just awoken from a coma. By the time he gets to the end of a sentence, Clive may have already forgotten what he was talking about. He can’t remember what he was doing only a few minutes earlier nor recognize people he had just seen. The duration of Clive’s short-term memory is anywhere between 7 seconds and 30 seconds. (If you have ever seen the movie 50 First Dates, you might be familiar with this type of condition.) People with anterograde amnesia don’t recall their recent past and are not able to retain any new information. Anterograde amnesiaĪnterograde amnesia is the loss of the possibility to make new memories after the event that caused the condition, such as an injury or illness. In psychology, the phenomenon is often referred to as “30-second Clive” in reference to Clive Wearing’s case. Most patients suffer one or the other, so it’s notable that Clive suffered both.Ĭlive Wearing and Dual Retrograde-Anterograde AmnesiaĬlive’s rare dual retrograde-anterograde amnesia, also known as global or total amnesia, is one of the most extreme cases of memory loss ever recorded. As a consequence, he was left with both anterograde amnesia, the inability to make or keep memories, and retrograde amnesia, the loss of past memories. It is essential for recalling facts and remembering how, where, and when an event happened.Ĭlive’s hippocampus and medial temporal lobes where it is located were ravaged by the disease. The hippocampus is a part of the brain that plays an important role in consolidating short-term memory into long-term memory. The rare neurological condition called herpes encephalitis caused profound and irreparable damage to Clive’s hippocampus. When on 27 March 1985 he contracted a virus that attacked his central nervous system resulting in a brain infection, Clive’s life was changed forever. He was an accomplished musicologist, keyboardist, conductor, music producer, and professional tenor at the Westminster Cathedral. Not Just Clive Wearing: Other Cases of Amnesia Who is Clive Wearing?Ĭlive Wearing was born on.
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