The
idea of using memory lost in movies has been used for decades now. From 50
First Dates to the popular hit Finding Dory. Memory lost for characters in
movies and T.V shows are often misconstrued. But in one particular depiction of
memory lost the producers might actually have gotten it right.
In
the popular TV show named Vampire Dairies on CW the main character Stefan
Salvatore gets his brain fried by a witch and loses all his memories. Although
this show is completely fictional and a person can't actually have their brain
fried by a witch, what Stefan experienced is a real concept studied in
psychology. Throughout the following episodes after Stefan loses his memories
the characters on the show are baffled and cannot explain what is happening to
Stefan. Well if the characters had taken a psychology class they might have
known that Stefan was experiencing retrograde amnesia. Retrograde amnesia is
the loss of long-term memories. So the inability to remember yourself or any
past experiences that have happened in your life. In the show we see how Stefan
cannot recognize his own brother, his best friend, people that he had strong
connections with. He does not even remember his own name. H.M, who was studied
in psychology, is a case similar to Stefan's. H.M suffers from retrograde
amnesia and lost long term memories from age 16 through 27. All of H.M's
other functions were fine and working, like Stefan. He is able to use his STM,
he still had his intelligence, he could carry out a conversation, and etc.
Moving on to the cause of Stefan's loss of old memories, one can only
speculate. From H.M we can draw make some accusations as to why Stefan lost his
memories. H.M underwent a serious surgery where large potions his hippocampus
was removed. We know that the hippocampus plays a big part in the storage and
forming of memories. From this we can conclude that when the witch did her dark
magic on Stefan she somehow "fried" his hippocampus causing him to
lose his memory.
But
every show has to have a happy ending, Stefan does get his memories back and
there are probably studies on that too but that's for another day!
References
http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2009/03/02/amnesia-in-the-movies/
Aaliyah Stroman-Surita
