Ybonie Communications Peoples' Magazine -

By: Salome G. Rowe

My Thoughts about the Wearing Amnesia Case - In his poem, The Lie, Sir Walter Raleigh (1600, as cited by Abrams et al., 1979) wrote that age was wasted; time was no more; wisdom was tangled, and art had no more soundness than a lie (p. 986). Much like Raleigh (1600, 1979), British musician and symphony conductor Clive Wearing (Annenberg Foundation (TAF) (2009) spoke about himself in a similar fashion, as though he continuously witnessed and rewitnessed his life without age, time, new wisdom, or soundness (dependability). For seconds at a time, Wearing experienced his life with no new memories for the first time everyday (TAF, 2009). Suffering with anterograde amnesia, Wearing said, "No taste. No smell. No dreams. No thoughts. I've never seen a human; it [his state of amnesia] is like death," and, although he recalled and replayed his symphonic music beautifully, he could not remember the color of his own hair from one brief moment to the next (TAF, 2009). This discussion will consider Wearing's state of mind regarding his loss of memory and the relative concepts involved in memory encoding, storing, and retrieving data. It will highlight the significance of memory to human existence and discuss what has been learned about memory by scientists who have studied unusual cases of amnesia similar to that suffered by Wearing. Ultimately, this discussion will show that no final explanation has been given that identifies the structures and processes of the brain that control the many types of memory processes that happen within in it (Sternberg, 2009).

For example, in 1985, Wearing contracted a severe case of encephalitis, which is an inflammatory condition that can happen in response to viral, fungal, bacterial, or parasitic agents that enter the brain (Alloy, Riskind, & Manos, 2004). Ironically, the catastrophic swelling, inflammation, and infection are the brain's ways of trying to defend itself. Human beings can contract encephalitis from mosquitoes, ticks, and horses, and these viruses produce many of the same symptoms as epidemic encephalitis, such as lethargy, irritability, seizures, and often lead to death or, in those who survive, such as Wearing did, brain damage. Encephalitis can also be the outcome of the herpes simplex viruses (HSV), Epstein Barr (EBV), measles, mumps, and arboviruses that contain RNA and can cause yellow fever. When one considers the significance of short and long-term memories, studying Wearing's case emphasizes how sensitive and vulnerable the brain is to its environment and how important its structures and processes are to memory within the human mind. For example, as a result of his case of encephalitis, Wearing lost much of his ability to store, recall, or make use of his post-brain trauma experiences (TAF, 2009; Alloy, Riskind, & Manos, 2004). There are many theories intended to explain how the virus has changed Wearing's memory, but so much about how he perceives and why he forgets has not been explained (TAF, 2009). Consequently, the preferred types of studies used in Wearing's case (and others similar to it) involve empirical (observational) approaches, which will be discussed later, and none have proved that one particular brain structure or chemical caused his amnesia (TAF, 2009). Instead, there seems to be a consensus that different memory-related functions seem to be associated with particular parts of the brain, but that there are many unresolved questions about the connections between brain structures and processes that provide mechanisms that human beings use to encode, store, retrieve, and respond to stimuli (TAF, 2009; Sternberg, 2009; Jeffries, 2009).

Wearing's behavior showed that a) since his traumatic brain damage, he could not process new memories (TAF, 2009), b) he remembered how to play music that he learned prior to his contracting encephalitis, c) Wearing's neurologist who had tested him 15 times reported that Wearing had begun to lose his "semantic memories" which are memories of places, events, and acts from years ago that are stored in long-term memory (precursors to retrograde amnesia), d) he remembered his wife, e) he had stronger emotional ties to his wife than anyone else from his past, f) his memories from his past were becoming more choppy, and not particularly detailed, g) he did not process (comprehend or was not able to explain) why the images that he saw of himself existed, h) he commented that he must not have been conscious when the images that he saw of himself or the notes that he wrote about his life each day were made, i) he became highly emotional when he was pressed to try to explain or understand his forgetfulness, j) he was being kept in a mental facility in order to help protect him for many reasons. Many progressive studies designed to connect Wearing's impaired memory processes to his brain relative to structure, brain localization, neurolo-gical implications, and environmental indications have been and continue to be conducted, but no concrete answers that explain why Wearing has lost his short-term and much of his long-term memories have been provided (Sternberg, 2010; Kapur, 1999).  (Continued on the next page).