Memory. The main symptoms and syndromes of memory disorders

Memory disorders are one of the most common disorders that significantly impair a person's quality of life. There are two main types of them - quantitative disorders, which are manifested in the loss, weakening or strengthening of memory traces, and qualitative disorders (paramnesia), expressed in the appearance of false memories, in a mixture of reality, past, present and imaginary.

Kinds

This symptom manifests itself in the form of the following diseases:

1. Amnesia, which can take various forms, but in general is characterized by a loss of memory for various periods of time, the loss of various information or skills.
2. Hypomnesia - is characterized primarily by a weakening of the ability to reproduce and memorize various reference data - names, numbers, terms and names, i.e. memory functions are affected unevenly.
3. Hypermnesia is, on the contrary, a pathological exacerbation of memory. Often occurs in manic states and the initial stages of alcohol and drug intoxication.
4. Paramnesias are qualitative disorders, they are quite difficult to clearly classify, since the symptoms are quite complex. With these diseases, what is seen, experienced or told for the first time is perceived by a person as something familiar that happened to him before. The illusion of recognition also applies to these disorders.

The reasons

There are actually a lot of reasons for memory loss. This is an asthenic syndrome - anxiety and depression, alcoholism, dementia, chronic diseases, intoxication, lack of trace elements, as well as age-related changes. Below we consider the reasons why such disorders may occur in different age groups of patients.

In children

The main causes of disorders in children are congenital mental retardation and acquired conditions, expressed in hypomnesia - a deterioration in the process of memorizing and reproducing information, or amnesia - loss of memory of individual episodes.

Amnesia in children can be a consequence of trauma, mental illness, coma, or poisoning, such as alcohol. However, partial memory impairment in children is most common due to the complex effect of several factors, such as an unfavorable psychological climate in the children's team or in the family, asthenic conditions (including due to frequent acute respiratory viral infections), and hypovitaminosis.

In adults

The reasons why memory impairments can occur in adults are perhaps the most. This is the impact of stressful situations at work and at home, and the presence of all kinds of diseases of the nervous system, such as Parkinson's disease or encephalitis. Of course, alcoholism and drug addiction, mental illnesses - depression, schizophrenia, neuroses lead to such violations.

An important factor that can greatly affect the ability to remember are somatic diseases, during which there is damage to the vessels of the brain and, as a result, a violation of cerebral circulation.

As a rule, during the natural aging process, memory decline occurs rather slowly. At first, it becomes more difficult to remember the events that just happened. Patients during this period may experience fear, depression, self-doubt.

One way or another, 50-75% of people in old age complain about memory impairment. However, as already noted, in most cases this process is slow and does not lead to serious problems or a significant deterioration in the quality of life. However, the process can also take on severe forms, when memory begins to deteriorate rapidly. If in this case you do not resort to treatment, then, as a rule, the patient develops senile dementia.

To determine if a person has problems, various diagnostic methods have been developed. Although it is necessary to understand that all methods are averaged, since people differ greatly in individual characteristics, and it is rather difficult to determine what a “normal” memory is. However, below are a few techniques for checking the memory status.

Diagnosis of visual and auditory memory

For the implementation of the diagnosis, cards are used that depict various objects. In total, 60 cards are required, which will be used in two series - 30 in each.

Each card from the stack is sequentially shown to the patient with an interval of 2 seconds. After showing all 30 cards, it is necessary to take a break of 10 seconds, after which the patient will repeat the images that he managed to remember. Moreover, the latter are allowed to be called in a chaotic order, that is, the sequence is not important. After checking the result, the percentage of correct answers is determined.

Under the same conditions, the patient is shown a second stack of 30 cards. If the results differ greatly, then this will indicate poor concentration of attention and unstable mnestic function. If during the test an adult correctly names 18-20 pictures, then he is considered one hundred percent healthy.

The patient's auditory memory is checked in a similar way, only the images on the cards are not shown to him, but are pronounced aloud. A repeated series of words is pronounced on another day. One hundred percent result - the correct indication of 20-22 words.

memorization method

The subject is read a dozen two-syllable words, the semantic connection between which cannot be established. The doctor repeats this sequence from two to four times, after which the subject himself names the words that he can remember. Repeatedly the patient is invited to name the same words in half an hour. Correct and mismatched responses are recorded, after which a conclusion is made about the level of attention of the patient.

There is also a method for memorizing artificial words (for example, roland, whitefish, etc.) that do not carry any semantic load. The patient is read 10 such simple sound combinations, after which the subject repeats the words that he managed to remember. A healthy patient will be able to reproduce all the words without exception after 5-7 repetitions by the doctor.

Prevention

The best prevention of memory loss is a healthy lifestyle. It is also necessary to treat somatic diseases - diabetes, hypertension, etc. in a timely manner and in strict accordance with medical recommendations. It is important for prevention and compliance with the normal mode of work and rest, sufficient sleep - at least 7 hours.

No need to overdo all kinds of diets. You need to understand that about 20% of the energy received by the body with food goes just to meet the needs of the brain. Therefore, a balanced diet must be selected.

Priority should be given to foods made from whole grains, vegetables, oily fish, etc.

It must also be remembered that the water balance of the body also has an extremely negative effect on the nervous system and, accordingly, the risk of memory impairment. Dehydration should not be allowed, for this you need to consume 2 liters of fluid per day.

Most importantly, remember that normal positive communication with friends and relatives, work activity, albeit minimal, maintaining social activity is the key to maintaining a healthy brain until old age.

The doctor's story about the problem in question in the following video:

Memory is a mental process of capturing, preserving and reproducing past experience.

The strength of memory depends on the degree of concentration of attention on the incoming information, the emotional attitude (interest) to it, as well as on the general condition of the person, the degree of training, the nature of mental processes. A person's conviction that information is useful, combined with his increased activity in memorizing it, is an important condition for the assimilation of new knowledge.

Types of memory according to the storage time of the material:
1) instantaneous (iconic) - thanks to this memory, a complete and accurate picture of what the sense organs have only perceived is retained for 0.1-0.5 s, while no processing of the information received is performed;
2) short-term (KP) - is able to store information for a short period of time and in a limited amount.
Typically, most people have a CP volume of 7 ± 2 units.
In the CP, only the most significant information, a generalized image, is recorded;
3) operational (OP) - functions for a predetermined time (from several seconds to several days) depending on the task that needs to be solved, after which the information can be deleted;
4) long-term (LT) - information is stored for an indefinitely long period.
DP contains the material that a practically healthy person must remember at any time: his name, patronymic, surname, place of birth, capital of the Motherland, etc.
In humans, DP and CP are inextricably linked.

Memory disorders

Hypomnesia- violation of short-term memory (memory loss, forgetfulness).
Fixation hypomnesia is a disorder in remembering current events.
Hypomnesia is normal with severe fatigue, psychopathy, alcoholism, drug addiction.

Amnesia- Violation of long-term memory (memory loss, memory loss).
Retrograde amnesia is the disappearance from memory of events preceding the trauma.
Anterograde amnesia is the disappearance from memory of events following the injury.
Congrade amnesia - loss of memory only for a period of direct impairment of consciousness.
Perforation amnesia (palimpsest) - loss of memory for part of the events.
Amnesia occurs in organic brain lesions, neurotic disorders (dissociative amnesia), alcoholism, drug addiction.

Paramnesia- distorted and false memories (memory errors).
Pseudo-reminiscences(illusions of memory, paramnesia) - erroneous memories of events.
Confabulations(memory hallucinations) - memories of what was not.
Cryptomnesia- inability to remember the source of information (the event was in reality, in a dream or a movie).
Paramnesias are found in schizophrenia, dementia, organic lesions, Korsakov's syndrome, progressive paralysis.

In addition, there is hypermnesia- pathological increased ability to memorize.
Hypermnesia occurs with manic syndrome, taking psychotropic drugs (marijuana, LSD, etc.), at the beginning of an epileptic seizure.

Ribot's Law

Ribot's Law- decrease in memory by the type of "memory reverse". With memory impairments, memories of recent events first become inaccessible, then the mental activity of the subject begins to be disturbed; feelings and habits are lost; finally, instinctive memory disintegrates. In cases of memory recovery, the same steps occur in reverse order.

Memory is one of the most important cognitive abilities and higher mental functions (along with sensation, perception and thinking), responsible for the accumulation, preservation and reproduction of individual and social experience, acquired knowledge and skills. The success of the individual and emotional comfort largely depend on it.

The ability to memorize only the necessary information, while filtering out and forgetting all unnecessary and negative is an important quality. Whereas memory disorders can maladjust in society and lead to mental disorders of the individual. Therefore, it is so necessary to prevent such problems, and for this you need to know how to avoid them and what to do when the first signs appear.

Mnemonic disorder, memory impairment is the occurrence of certain difficulties with fixing (memorizing), preserving and reproducing any information from the past.

Classification

There are different types of disorders of this mental function. First of all, these are two large groups, which are divided into many small ones: memory impairments include dysmnesia (quantitative) and paramnesia (qualitative).

Quantitative memory impairment (dysmnesia)

Hypermnesia

A condition in which pathologically accurate memories of many events from the past are preserved to the smallest detail. And everything would be fine, but they have no meaning for the present. In normal development, this is usually forgotten. Why is that bad? First, unnecessary old memories fill up space in the memory store and thus prevent new ones from gaining a foothold. Therefore, with hypermnesia, current information is almost not recorded. Secondly, the logical sequence of events is broken.

Example. After relaxing at sea, not pleasant moments are remembered (beach, bright tropical vegetation, new acquaintances, delicious food, etc.), but such minor nuances as the interior of the hotel room, the clothes of the attendants, flight features, etc. in various pathologies, hypermnesia takes the form of a partial, i.e. selective. In particular, oligophrenics perfectly memorize sequences of numbers, and they do it without any purpose.

Hypomnesia (holey, perforated, perforated memory)

A state in which a person reproduces information from the past only partially. As a rule, he is able to remember only what is constantly repeated in his life and is personally important to him. But historical dates, news, old acquaintances, terms, names - all this is forgotten.

Example. A person accurately reproduces a multi-digit unlock code for a phone, because he does it every day and this is important for him. But he cannot say in what year serfdom was abolished or what was the name of his first teacher.

Amnesia

A condition characterized by the inability to remember a certain period of time. Depending on how long the period falls, several more subspecies are distinguished within this violation:

• - events are forgotten before some traumatic factor (severe stress, traumatic brain injury, etc.), they can cover minutes and years;
• - there are no memories of what happened immediately after the traumatic factor;
• congrade - loss of what is happening during a protracted illness, accompanied by impaired consciousness;
• anteroretrograde (complete, total) - everything is forgotten that is associated with a protracted, serious illness and a traumatic factor, as well as events that occur before that.

Depending on which function is impaired, this disorder is divided into several subspecies:

• - the inability to remember and reproduce information leads to disorientation (a person does not understand where he is, who surrounds him, how he should behave);
• anekphoria - the impossibility of conscious, arbitrary recall without prompting.

Classification depending on the current:

• progressive - an increasing disorder, explained by Ribot's law (see below);
• stationary - persistent memory loss;
• regressive - gradual restoration of forgotten events;
• retarded (delayed) - events are not restored in chronological order, some period may fall out for a long time, and then be remembered many years later.

Ribot's Law. The memory of a person with a progressive disorder is like a layer cake, in which the bottom layer is the most distant memories in time (childhood, for example). With such a violation, first the upper layers disappear (that is, what happened quite recently), then events are sequentially forgotten in the direction from the present to the past.

Depending on the object, amnesia happens:

• affective (catatim) - occurs as a result of a traumatic situation, after a strong shock, all the events that accompany a nervous breakdown are forgotten;
• hysterical - the result of a psychopathic syndrome, some individual moments are forgotten;
• scotomization - conscious forgetting of events that hurt, injure;
• palimpsests (alcoholic) - loss of what happened during intoxication.

Qualitative memory disorders (paramnesia)

Pseudo-reminiscences (illusions, false memories)

The line between past and present is blurred. A person experiences what happened a long time ago, as if it is happening now and has meaning for him.

Confabulations (delusions of the imagination, fiction, hallucinations)

In fact, these are false memories: a person is convinced that certain events happened in his life, while in fact they did not exist. Confabulations are classified into several subspecies:

• mnestic and replacing - due to memory loss and being a replacement for what is forgotten;
• fantastic - associated with dementia and a rich imagination.

Example. A person suffering from confabulation can “recognize” a person who is completely unfamiliar to him, at the same time he will sincerely express his delight from the long-awaited meeting and even tell in detail the moments allegedly experienced together with him. Often the behavior of such people is accompanied by fussiness, speech disorders, lack of logic in thinking.

Confabulosis

A more harmless variety of confabulation. There are no psychophysical disorders. However, by chance, during a conversation, false memories may come to light.

Cryptomnesia

Patients begin to appropriate other people's memories. If, for example, some story has sunk into their souls, they will continue to tell it to those around them as if it happened to them personally. And it can be a story of a friend, the plot of a book or a movie. The most painful form of cryptomnesia is pathological plagiarism, when a person claims to be the author of a completely foreign masterpiece.

Echomnesia (Pick's reduplicating paramnesia)

Strong feelings, worries, anxieties, emotions experienced once, are perceived by the sufferer with triple strength. He can relive them over and over again, superimposing them on his real life. For example, sometime in the past, parting with a loved one happened with a scandal and breaking dishes. In each subsequent relationship, if they end, the person suffering from echomnesia will try to reproduce the same situation - he will definitely provoke a quarrel and smash something to smithereens.

Phenomena allegedly already seen and heard

One of the most common violations. This is the confidence that the events that have taken place have already taken place, but when exactly - no one can say. This feeling is played up in many films and exorcisms. It is believed that this is how genetic memory manifests itself, telling us about what happened in a past life. This also includes radically opposite disorders, when something that has already happened more than once is perceived as a new experience. There are several varieties:

• jame vu - the feeling when something well known seems completely unknown, as if seen for the first time;
• deja veku - a mental state when the first experienced events seem to be known;
• deja antandyu - a mental disorder when the sounds heard for the first time seem familiar for a long time;
• jame antandyu - a mental disorder when familiar sounds (even one's own voice) are perceived as first heard;
• jame syu - the inability to reproduce previously well-learned knowledge (for example, a verse learned the day before).

Often in psychology they use the classification proposed by A. R. Luria. It is based on pathogenetic mechanisms:

• modal-nonspecific disorders - caused by damage to deep brain structures: auditory, visual, motor analyzers;
• modal-specific - provoked by damage to the cortical zones of the analyzers: acoustic, auditory, visual-spatial, motor;
• system-specific - due to damage to speech analyzers.

So memory impairment syndromes are quite widely represented in psychology. Each of them requires careful diagnosis and a separate approach to correction.

Reasons for violation

Physiological:

• asthenic syndrome;
• organic diseases of the central nervous system, degenerative processes in it, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's chorea;
• mental pathologies: dementia, epilepsy;
• mental retardation;
• alcoholism, drug addiction;
• damage to brain structures, traumatic brain injury, cerebrovascular accident, atherosclerosis, stroke, hypertension;
• toxic damage to the liver;
• hypovitaminosis.

Psycho-emotional reasons:

Wrong lifestyle:

• unbalanced diet;
• insufficient sleep;
• improper distribution of time between work and rest;
• no daily routine.

Scientifically proven. German neuroscientists from the Ruhr University (Germany) found out that depression deforms memory and causes its persistent impairment.

Symptoms

General symptoms for most species:

• confusion;
• forgetfulness;
• inability to recall past events or memorized information;
• confusion;
• autism, rigidity of the nervous system.

If the violations are caused by some somatic or mental illness, they are accompanied by symptoms characteristic of them.

Often there is an overlap of violations of various higher mental functions, which is also manifested by various deviations. For example, memory impairments and...

• ... thinking: if a person does not have high mental abilities, it is difficult for him to remember information, this is especially evident in dementia and mental retardation, when obvious memory problems are diagnosed;
• ... attention: unstable, slow or insufficient concentration leads to the fact that information is not remembered.

It must be borne in mind that each individual disorder is characterized by a specific clinical picture.

Features of the flow

Psychological

Short-term memory impairment (STL)

In psychology, short-term memory is called, which has an insignificant volume and is able to retain images for a short time - no more than 3 days. After that, the information is subject to processing and passes into the possession of long-term memory. Plays an important role in memory. When it is violated, the events of the present are poorly recorded. The sufferer cannot learn a quatrain or remember the routine of his own day. The main reasons are undeveloped intellect, stressful situations, overwork, depression, intoxication of the body (alcohol, for example).

Mediated memory disorders

To improve memory, experts often recommend training its mediated form. For example, to memorize a certain event, some kind of "anchor" is reproduced - a smell, an image, a code word, a taste, etc. This technique can be used when learning a foreign language (associate memorized words with Russian ones). In some mental pathologies, mediated memory is impaired, and the patient cannot reproduce the intermediate link that would help him remember everything else. Most often this is observed in schizophrenia and rigidity of emotional attitudes.

Violation of the motivational component of memory

It is believed that incomplete actions are remembered better than completed ones. This is due to the motivational component of memory. If a person knows that he has finished some business, he no longer sees the point in returning to it. If the task remains unresolved, it will constantly pop up in thoughts and require completion to the end. If this component is violated, the patient never brings the tasks assigned to him to their logical conclusion, because he simply forgets about them. This leads to social maladjustment, as others begin to consider him irresponsible and frivolous.

Pseudoamnesia

Some experts refer to pseudoamnesia as a memory disorder, while others consider it a mental disorder of mnestic activity. The reason is extensive damage to the frontal lobes of the brain. Involuntary memory works, while arbitrary memory is non-functional.

Example. A person suffering from pseudo-amnesia is given the task of memorizing as many words as possible by ear. Of the ten spoken, he will be able to reproduce no more than 3. However, if you give him pictures that depict what was just spoken, he will recognize a much larger number than he reproduced earlier.

Age

In children

Mnemonic disorders in a child can most often be caused by two factors: serious somatic diseases (after trauma, with mental retardation or schizophrenia) or disorders in thinking and attention. Sometimes the cause is pedagogical neglect, if it was not developed in accordance with age. Usually, violations are already detected in younger students: against the background of classmates, such children cannot reproduce poems by heart, do not know how to retell, are not able to concentrate on the lesson, and have low intelligence.

The success of the correction directly depends on the causes. For example, psychotraumatic factors are removed with the help of psychotherapists, somatic - through therapeutic treatment, pedagogical - developmental programs.

During adolescence and middle age

Memory impairment during this period occurs, as a rule, due to acquired diseases and injuries. And with age, they can become more and more inconsistent. That is, during prolonged depression and excessive stress, they become aggravated (short-term memory suffers first of all), and after recovery everything returns to normal.

In old age

Over time, the nervous system and brain undergo natural aging processes. They gradually atrophy, the number of neurons decreases, the connections between them weaken. This becomes the main cause of mnemonic disorders in the elderly. However, if you lead a healthy lifestyle and, if possible, avoid traumatic factors, this moment can be delayed.

Fact. The main violations occur at the age after the turn of 50 years.

Pathological

In a number of diseases, the most persistent and frequent disorders are diagnosed:

• in schizophrenia, such types of disorders as hypermnesia, anecphoria, pseudo-reminiscences, fixative and progressive amnesia develop;
• with epilepsy and after a stroke - anteroretrograde;
• with TBI - retrograde and anteroretrograde.

Experts also note other diseases associated with memory impairment.

Quantitative disorders can be associated with the following pathologies and conditions:

• oligophrenia, manic syndrome, drug addiction - hypermnesia;
• neurotic disorders, major drug addiction, psychoorganic, paralytic syndromes - hypomnesia;
• hypoxia - retrograde memory loss;
• Korsakovsky non-alcoholic psychosis, amental syndrome - anterograde;
• stunning, stupor, coma, delirium, oneiroid syndrome - congrade;
• coma, amental syndrome, toxic brain damage, stroke - anteroretrograde;
• Korsakov's non-alcoholic psychosis, dementia, paralytic syndrome - fixative;
• chronic fatigue syndrome, psychoorganic syndrome, lacunar dementia - anekphoria;
• dementia, Pick's disease and Alzheimer's - progressive;
• psychogenic disorders - affective;
• hysterical, psychopathic syndrome - hysterical;
• alcoholism - palimpsests.

Qualitative disorders are most often associated with diseases such as:

• Korsakov's non-alcoholic psychosis, dementia - pseudo-reminiscences;
• Korsakovsky non-alcoholic psychosis - confabulosis;
• psychoorganic and paranoid syndromes - cryptomnesia;
• psychoorganic syndrome - echomnesia;
• depersonalization and derealization personality disorders are phenomena of what has already been seen and heard.

Diagnostics

To diagnose memory disorders, various methods are used:

• collection of anamnesis;
• electroencephalogram (EEG);
• computed tomography (CT);
• magnetic resonance imaging (MRI);
• general tests and ultrasound diagnostics to identify a somatic disease that caused violations.

Psychological tests have remained the main diagnostic method for many years:

• to identify violations in the KVP;
• pictograms;
• method 10 words;
• textology and many others.

In each individual case, the specialist himself decides which methods to use to make a more accurate diagnosis.

Treatment

Treatment and correction of memory impairments entirely depend on the cause of their occurrence. Therefore, in the first place, the provocateur factor is identified and all measures are taken to eliminate it. Usually a therapeutic course is prescribed. If there is a full recovery, all gaps are restored. If we are talking about an incurable disease, the patient with these problems will have to live until the end of his days.

Psychiatry deals with serious disorders that cannot be corrected without drug therapy. Most often, such patients are prescribed the following drugs:

• nootropics (Piracetam, Lucetam, Nootropil);
• energy metabolism substrates (glutamic acid);
• herbal remedies (Bilobil, Eleutherococcus).

These drugs are available without a prescription, so they are often used in self-medication to increase concentration and performance. However, experts warn that this can have dangerous health consequences.

Did you know that... Are mnemonic disorders treated with hypnotherapy? Scientists still can’t fully understand how it works, but good sleep can significantly improve the condition of patients.

In psychology, correction is carried out using:

• individual and group trainings;
• exercises to train attention, thinking and memory;
• various mnemonics;
• creating semantic phrases from the first letters;
• rhyming;
• method of Cicero (based on spatial imagination);
• Aivazovsky method (based on visual memory);
• psychological and pedagogical correctional influence.

Suddenly. The famous phrase "Every hunter wants to know where the pheasant sits" for remembering the sequence of colors in the rainbow is the simplest mnemonic.

Pathopsychology achieves good results in correction. This is a practical branch of clinical psychology that studies any pathology in comparison with the norm. By constantly returning the patient to the starting point of memories, they manage to partially restore the gaps.

1. Lead an active lifestyle, play sports.
2. More to be in the fresh air (to improve cerebral circulation).
3. Be intellectually active: read books, follow the news, solve crossword puzzles, knit, play chess.
4. Communicate as much as possible with people, make new acquaintances.
5. Follow the daily routine. Get enough sleep.
6. Avoid stress, overwork, excessive loads.
7. Follow a balanced diet and drinking regimen.

Useful advice. Experts believe that aromatherapy helps to restore and correct various memory disorders. In particular, regular inhalation of rosemary aroma allows to improve long-term.

Memory is the most important component of the life of any person. The slightest violations in its work are fraught with serious complications. It can be constantly trained and improved with the help of mnemonics and special exercises, without waiting for age-related problems to arise. But most often people forget about it, which sooner or later leads to various kinds of disorders that cannot always be corrected and treated.

Memory is an important function of our central nervous system to perceive the information received and store it in some invisible "cells" of the brain in reserve in order to retrieve and use it in the future. Memory is one of the most important abilities of a person’s mental activity, therefore the slightest violation of memory burdens him, he gets out of the usual rhythm of life, suffering himself and annoying those around him.

Memory impairment is most often perceived as one of the many clinical manifestations of some kind of neuropsychic or neurological pathology, although in other cases forgetfulness, absent-mindedness and poor memory are the only signs of a disease that no one pays attention to, believing that a person is such by nature. .

The big mystery is human memory

Memory is a complex process that takes place in the central nervous system and involves the perception, accumulation, retention and reproduction of information received at different periods of time. Most of all, we think about the properties of our memory when we need to learn something new. The result of all the efforts made in the learning process depends on how someone manages to hook, hold, perceive what they see, hear or read, which is important when choosing a profession. From the point of view of biology, memory is short-term and long-term.

Information received in a glimpse or, as they say, “it flew in one ear, flew out of the other” is a short-term memory in which what is seen and heard is postponed for several minutes, but, as a rule, without meaning and content. So, the episode flashed by and disappeared. Short-term memory does not promise anything in advance, which is probably good, because otherwise a person would have to store all the information that he does not need at all.

However, with certain efforts of a person, information that has fallen into the zone of short-term memory, if you keep your eyes on it or listen and delve into it, will be transferred to long-term storage. This happens even beyond the will of a person, if some episodes are often repeated, have a special emotional significance, or occupy a separate place among other phenomena for various reasons.

Assessing their memory, some people claim that they have a short-term memory, because everything is remembered, assimilated, retold in a couple of days, and then just as quickly forgotten. This often happens when preparing for exams, when information is put aside only for the purpose of reproducing it to decorate a grade book. It should be noted that in such cases, turning again to this topic, when it becomes interesting, a person can easily restore seemingly lost knowledge. It is one thing to know and forget, and another to not receive information. And here everything is simple - the acquired knowledge without much human effort was transformed into departments of long-term memory.

Long-term memory analyzes, structures, creates volume and purposefully postpones everything for future use indefinitely. Everything is kept in long-term memory. Memorization mechanisms are very complex, but we are so used to them that we perceive them as natural and simple things. However, we note that for the successful implementation of the learning process, in addition to memory, it is important to have attention, that is, to be able to concentrate on the right subjects.

It is common for a person to forget past events after a while, if they do not periodically extract their knowledge in order to use them, therefore, the inability to remember something is not always to be attributed to memory impairment. Each of us has experienced the feeling when "it is spinning in the head, but does not come to mind", but this does not mean that serious disorders have occurred in the memory.

Why do memory lapses happen?

The causes of impaired memory and attention in adults and children may be different. If a child with congenital mental retardation immediately has learning problems, then he will already come to adulthood with these disorders. Children and adults can react differently to the environment: the child's psyche is more tender, so it takes stress harder. In addition, adults have long studied what the child is still trying to master.

Sadly, the trend towards the use of alcoholic beverages and drugs by adolescents, and even by young children left unattended by their parents, has become frightening: cases of poisoning are not so rarely recorded in the reports of law enforcement agencies and medical institutions. But for the child's brain, alcohol is the strongest poison that has an extremely negative effect on memory.

True, some pathological conditions that often cause absent-mindedness and poor memory in adults are usually excluded in children (Alzheimer's disease, atherosclerosis, osteochondrosis).

Causes of memory impairment in children

Thus, the causes of impaired memory and attention in children can be considered:

• Lack of vitamins,;
• Asthenia;
• Frequent viral infections;
• Traumatic brain injury;
• Stressful situations (dysfunctional family, despotism of parents, problems in the team that the child attends);
• Poor eyesight;
• Mental disorder;
• Poisoning, alcohol and drug use;
• Congenital pathology, in which mental retardation is programmed (Down's syndrome, etc.) or other (whatever) conditions (lack of vitamins or trace elements, the use of certain drugs, changes in metabolic processes that are not for the better) that contribute to the formation of attention deficit disorder, which, As you know, memory does not improve.

Causes of problems in adults

In adults, the reason that has become a bad memory, absent-mindedness and inability to concentrate for a long time, are various diseases acquired in the process of life:

1. Stress, psycho-emotional stress, chronic fatigue of both soul and body;
2. Acute and chronic;
3. Discirculatory;
4. cervical spine;
5. Traumatic brain injury;
6. Metabolic disorders;
7. Hormonal imbalance;
8. GM tumors;
9. Mental disorders (depression, schizophrenia and many others).

Of course, anemia of various origins, lack of trace elements, diabetes mellitus and other numerous somatic pathologies lead to impaired memory and attention, contribute to the appearance of forgetfulness and absent-mindedness.

What are the types of memory disorders? Among them are dysmnesia(hypermnesia, hypomnesia, amnesia) - changes in memory itself, and paramnesia- distortion of memories, to which the patient's personal fantasies are added. By the way, some of them, on the contrary, are considered by others to be rather a phenomenal memory than its violation. True, experts may have a slightly different opinion on this matter.

Dysmnesia

Phenomenal memory or mental disorder?

Hypermnesia- with such a violation, people remember and perceive quickly, information set aside many years ago for no reason pops up in memory, “rolls”, returns to the past, which does not always cause positive emotions. A person himself does not know why he needs to keep everything in his head, however, he can reproduce some long-past events to the smallest detail. For example, an elderly person can easily describe in detail (up to the teacher’s clothes) individual lessons at school, retell the lithmontage of a pioneer gathering, it is not difficult for him to remember other details related to studying at the institute, professional activities or family events.

Hypermnesia, present in a healthy person in the absence of other clinical manifestations, is not considered a disease, rather, on the contrary, this is exactly the case when they talk about phenomenal memory, although from the point of view of psychology, phenomenal memory is a slightly different phenomenon. People with this phenomenon are able to memorize and reproduce huge amounts of information that is not connected with any special meaning. These can be large numbers, sets of individual words, lists of objects, notes. Such a memory is often possessed by great writers, musicians, mathematicians and people of other professions that require genius abilities. Meanwhile, hypermnesia in a healthy person who does not belong to the cohort of geniuses, but has a high intelligence quotient (IQ), is not such a rare occurrence.

As one of the symptoms of pathological conditions, memory impairment in the form of hypermnesia occurs:

• With paroxysmal mental disorders (epilepsy);
• With intoxication with psychoactive substances (psychotropic drugs, narcotic drugs);
• In the case of hypomania - a condition similar to mania, but not up to it in terms of the severity of the course. Patients may experience a surge of energy, increased vitality, and ability to work. With hypomania, a violation of memory and attention is often combined (disinhibition, instability, inability to concentrate).

It is obvious that only a specialist can understand such subtleties, distinguish between the norm and pathology. Most of us are average representatives of the human population, to whom "nothing human is alien", but at the same time they do not turn the world upside down. From time to time (not every year and not in every locality) geniuses appear, they are not always immediately noticeable, because often such individuals are considered simply eccentrics. And, finally, (perhaps not often?) among the various pathological conditions there are mental illnesses that require correction and complex treatment.

bad memory

Hypomnesia- this type is usually expressed in two words: "bad memory."

Forgetfulness, absent-mindedness and poor memory are observed with asthenic syndrome, which, in addition to memory problems, is also characterized by other symptoms:

1. Increased fatigue.
2. Nervousness, irritability with or without it, bad mood.
3. Meteorological dependence.
4. during the day and insomnia at night.
5. BP drops, .
6. Tides and others.
7. , weakness.

Asthenic syndrome, as a rule, forms another pathology, for example:

• Arterial hypertension.
• Postponed traumatic brain injury (TBI).
• atherosclerotic process.
• The initial stage of schizophrenia.

The cause of impaired memory and attention according to the type of hypomnesia can be various depressive conditions (you can’t count everyone), menopausal syndrome that occurs with an adaptation disorder, organic brain damage (severe TBI, epilepsy, tumors). In such situations, as a rule, in addition to hypomnesia, the symptoms listed above are also present.

"I remember here - I don't remember here"

At amnesia not the whole memory falls out, but its individual fragments. As an example of this type of amnesia, one would like to recall the film by Alexander Gray "Gentlemen of Fortune" - "I remember here - I don't remember here."

However, not all amnesias look like in the famous motion picture, there are more serious cases when memory is lost significantly and for a long time or forever, therefore, several types of such memory impairments (amnesia) are distinguished:

A special type of memory loss that cannot be managed is progressive amnesia, representing a sequential loss of memory from the present to the past. The reason for the destruction of memory in such cases is organic atrophy of the brain, which occurs during Alzheimer's disease and . Such patients poorly reproduce traces of memory (speech disorders), for example, they forget the names of household items that they use daily (plate, chair, clock), but at the same time they know what they are intended for (amnestic aphasia). In other cases, the patient simply does not recognize the thing (sensory aphasia) or does not know what it is for (semantic aphasia). However, one should not confuse the habits of “radical” owners to find a use for everything that is in the house, even if it is intended for completely different purposes (you can make a beautiful dish or stand out of a used kitchen clock in the form of a plate).

This is what you need to figure out!

Paramnesia (distortion of memories) also referred to as memory disorders, and among them are the following types:

• Confabulation, in which fragments of one’s own memory disappear, and their place is taken by stories invented by the patient and presented to them “in all seriousness”, since he himself believes in what he is talking about. Patients talk about their exploits, unprecedented achievements in life and work, and even sometimes about crimes.
• pseudo-reminiscence- the replacement of one memory with another event that actually took place in the patient's life, only at a completely different time and under different circumstances (Korsakov's syndrome).
• Cryptomnesia when patients, having received information from various sources (books, movies, stories of other people), pass it off as events they experienced. In a word, patients, due to pathological changes, go to involuntary plagiarism, which is characteristic of delusional ideas found in organic disorders.
• Echomnesia- a person feels (quite sincerely) that this event has already happened to him (or did he see it in a dream?). Of course, such thoughts sometimes visit a healthy person, but the difference is that patients attach special significance to such phenomena (“go in cycles”), while healthy people simply quickly forget about it.
• Polympsest- this symptom exists in two versions: short-term memory lapses associated with pathological alcohol intoxication (episodes of the past day are confused with long-past events), and the combination of two different events of the same period of time, in the end, the patient himself does not know what happened in fact.

As a rule, these symptoms in pathological conditions are accompanied by other clinical manifestations, therefore, having noticed signs of “déjà vu” in oneself, there is no need to rush to make a diagnosis - this also happens in healthy people.

Decreased concentration affects memory

To violations of memory and attention, the loss of the ability to focus on specific objects include the following pathological conditions:

1. Attention instability- a person is constantly distracted, jumping from one subject to another (disinhibition syndrome in children, hypomania, hebephrenia - a mental disorder that develops as a form of schizophrenia in adolescence);
2. Rigidity (slow switching) from one topic to another - this symptom is very typical for epilepsy (those who communicated with such people know that the patient is constantly “stuck”, which makes it difficult to conduct a dialogue);
3. Lack of concentration- they say about such people: “That’s what a distracted one from Basseinaya Street!”, That is, absent-mindedness and poor memory in such cases are often perceived as features of temperament and behavior, which, in principle, often corresponds to reality.

Undoubtedly a decrease in concentration of attention, in particular, will adversely affect the entire process of memorizing and storing information, that is, on the state of memory as a whole.

Children forget faster

As for children, all these gross, permanent memory impairments, characteristic of adults and, especially, the elderly, are very rarely noted in childhood. Memory problems that arise due to congenital features require correction and, with a skillful approach (as far as possible), may recede a little. There are many cases when the efforts of parents and teachers literally worked wonders for Down syndrome and other types of congenital mental retardation, but here the approach is individual and dependent on different circumstances.

Another thing is if the baby was born healthy, and the problems appeared as a result of the troubles suffered. So here a child can expect a slightly different reaction to different situations:

• Amnesia in children in most cases, it manifests itself as memory lapses in relation to individual memories of episodes that took place during the period of clouding of consciousness associated with unpleasant events (poisoning, coma, trauma) - it is not in vain that they say that children quickly forget;
• Alcoholization of adolescence also proceeds differently than in adults - the absence of memories ( polympsests) on events occurring during intoxication, appears already in the first stages of drunkenness, without waiting for a diagnosis (alcoholism);
• retrograde amnesia in children, as a rule, it affects a short period of time before an injury or illness, and its severity is not as clear as in adults, that is, memory loss in a child can not always be noticed.

Most often in children and adolescents there is a memory impairment of the type of dysmnesia, which is manifested by a weakening of the ability to remember, store (retention) and reproduce (reproduction) the information received. Disorders of this type are more noticeable in school-age children, as they affect school performance, adaptation in a team, and behavior in everyday life.

In children attending preschool institutions, symptoms of dysmnesia are problems with memorizing rhymes, songs, children cannot participate in children's matinees and holidays. Despite the fact that the kid attends kindergarten all the time, every time he comes there, he cannot find his locker on his own to change clothes, among other items (toys, clothes, towels) it is difficult for him to find his own. Dysmnestic disorders are also noticeable at home: the child cannot tell what happened in the garden, forgets the names of other children, each time he reads fairy tales he perceives as if he hears them for the first time, he does not remember the names of the main characters.

Transient disturbances of memory and attention, along with fatigue, drowsiness and all sorts of autonomic disorders, are often observed in schoolchildren with various etiologies.

Before treatment

Before treating the symptoms of memory impairment, it is necessary to make a correct diagnosis and find out what causes the patient's problems. To do this, you need to get as much information about his health:

1. What diseases does he suffer from? Perhaps it will be possible to trace the connection between the existing pathology (or transferred in the past) with the deterioration of intellectual abilities;
2. Does he have a pathology that directly leads to memory impairment: dementia, cerebrovascular insufficiency, TBI (history), chronic alcoholism, drug disorders?
3. What medications does the patient take and is memory impairment related to the use of medications? Some groups of pharmaceuticals, for example, benzodiazepines, among the side effects, have such disorders, which, however, are reversible.

In addition, in the process of diagnostic search, it can be very useful to identify metabolic disorders, hormonal imbalance, deficiency of trace elements and vitamins.

In most cases, when looking for the causes of memory impairment, they resort to methods neuroimaging(CT, MRI, EEG, PET, etc.), which help to detect a brain tumor or hydrocephalus and, at the same time, to differentiate a vascular brain lesion from a degenerative one.

The need for neuroimaging methods also arises because memory impairment at first may be the only symptom of a serious pathology. Unfortunately, the greatest difficulties in diagnosis are depressive conditions, forcing in other cases to prescribe a trial antidepressant treatment (to find out if there is depression or not).

Treatment and correction

The normal aging process itself involves some decline in intellectual abilities: forgetfulness appears, memorization is not so easy, concentration of attention drops, especially if the neck is “squeezed” or pressure rises, however, such symptoms do not significantly affect the quality of life and behavior in everyday life. Older people who adequately assess their age learn to remind themselves (and quickly remember) about current affairs.

In addition, many do not neglect pharmaceutical treatment to improve memory.

Now there are a number of drugs that can improve brain function and even help with tasks that require significant intellectual effort. First of all, these are (piracetam, phezam, vinpocetine, cerebrolysin, cinnarizine, etc.).

Nootropics are indicated for elderly people who have certain age-related problems that are not yet noticeable to others. The drugs of this group are suitable for improving memory in violation of cerebral circulation caused by other pathological conditions of the brain and vascular system. By the way, many of these drugs are successfully used in pediatric practice.

However, nootropics are a symptomatic treatment, and in order to obtain the proper effect, one must strive for an etiotropic one.

As for Alzheimer's disease, tumors, mental disorders, here the approach to treatment should be very specific - depending on the pathological changes and the reasons that led to them. There is no single prescription for all cases, so there is nothing to advise patients. You just need to contact a doctor, who, perhaps, before prescribing drugs to improve memory, will send for an additional examination.

Difficult in adults and the correction of disorders of mental activity. Patients with poor memory, under the supervision of an instructor, memorize verses, solve crossword puzzles, practice solving logical problems, however, training, bringing some success (the severity of mnestic disorders seems to have decreased), still do not give particularly significant results.

Correction of memory and attention in children, in addition to treatment with the help of various groups of pharmaceuticals, provides for classes with a psychologist, exercises for the development of memory (poems, drawings, tasks). Of course, the children's psyche is more mobile and better amenable to correction, unlike the adult psyche. Children have the prospect of progressive development, while in older people only the opposite effect progresses.

Video: bad memory - expert opinion

Any person throughout his life accumulates certain knowledge, skills that he needs for life. What is possible only thanks to memory, which is the most important function of psychology. Often, people experience a violation of this function as a result of a malfunction of the brain. This article will talk about what is short-term and long-term memory, and why there is a temporary loss of stored information.

What is Short Term Memory?

Short-term memory is also called operational, because it remains loaded throughout the day and has a close relationship with the human intellect, since people who train this brain function are the most developed.

The largest information entering it is stored for no more than 7 seconds.

Short-term and long-term memory are related to each other. With regular repetition, active maintenance, it turns into a long-term one. Most of the information that enters our brain is forgotten, giving way to the information that is in long-term resources. The main characteristics of short-term information retention include:

1. Transition of information to long-term storage.
2. Information held in "short-term storage" quickly fades away.
3. Its scope is rather limited.

Types of memory loss

Temporary memory loss can come in many forms, the most common being:

Short Term Memory Loss Syndrome

Often there is a syndrome of loss of short-term memory, in which there are not only violations of the mnemonic functions of the brain, but also personality disorders. Most often, this condition occurs due to a violation of the structure of the brain, its symptoms are:

• memory loss;
• decrease in intelligence;
• weakening of the state of affect.

Patients most often suffer from complete memory loss, false memories, and a decrease in short-term memory. They cannot distinguish the secondary from the main, they have tactless expressions, unethical actions are observed.

Causes of memory loss

Short-term memory loss is possible not only in the elderly, but also in the young, it has the following reasons:

Can short-term memory be improved?

Each person is individual and has his own mnemonic features. Some people perceive information better by ear, some need to visually see the object. These features are not a violation, since the method of obtaining and storing information can improve throughout life. There are simple recommendations to improve the process of saving information, for example:

Treatment Methods

In order to quickly restore this function, it is necessary to contact a neurologist at the first signs, who, after the examination, will prescribe an adequate treatment. If the causes lie in injuries, poisoning, then therapy is carried out on the basis of eliminating the causes that caused this condition.

Short-term memory is well treated with the help of drug therapy or psychotherapy.

To date, hypnosis is widely used to restore this function, which allows you to restore lost facts.

Medical treatment

Among the medications that improve short-term memory, there are:

Nutrition principles

Of great importance for improving memory is a properly balanced diet, which should include a rich content of vitamins E, B, unsaturated fats, glucose. These elements help to restore the lost mnemonic functions, they are contained in:

• nuts;
• eggs;
• whole grain;
• fatty fish;
• honey.

Easy Ways to Improve Memory

The simplest and fastest way to improve is physical activity, which plays an important role not only in remembering information, but also in extracting it by stimulating blood flow to the brain.

Increased blood circulation and increased pulse, which are formed due to physical activity, not only lead to muscle strengthening, but also improve mental functions, intellectual abilities, sharpen attention.