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
In memory lost in movies the person Stefan supposedly gets his brain fried by a witch and suffers from retrograde amnesia. The blog posted does in fact get it right by way of the symptoms that agree with H.M’s condition as described in the text. I have never seen the show, but the description of the character Stefan fits the case studies in the text. However, the show does not get it completely correct in that Stefan gets his memory back. Usually this type of amnesia is most likely to be permanent due to “enduring changes in take brain” (pg. 119 in the text)” nice blog- good analysis.
ReplyDeleteIn the case of H.M., he experienced retrograde amnesia AND anterograde amnesia. People are more likely to suffer from anterograde amnesia following a head injury than retrograde, therefore Stefan would have more likely had either anterograde amnesia or both anterograde AND retrograde. It is hard to believe that after a trauma such as "having his brain fried" wouldn't affect his ability to form new memories as well. So although you do make a good arguement, I feel as though the lack of anterograde amnesia does make it hard to believe (not counting the whole fried brain part).
ReplyDelete-Chelsea Monheim