Please take a moment to read my questions on what you want from this website and reply with your ideas: http://porillion.wordpress.com/
In this final part of the series, I talk about my memory problems. There are two clear aspects about them. The first is that I can’t be sure how much relates to my inability to visualise. The second is that medical science doesn’t seem to recognise persistent episodic amnesia as a condition.
The only people I’ve met who say they have as bad an inability to visualise also say they have very poor episodic memory. So I suspect the two are related. This is why I have taken to calling the condition persistent episodic visual amnesia, or PEVA.
One phrase one of the two people used sums up the condition as it can refer to any event not just parting from a loved one. Writing in a thread (which unfortunately I have lost the link to), he said that when he left someone he loved it was like they no longer existed. At first he found this very distressing. In some ways, there was a sense of loss. After all, if it was someone he cared about he couldn’t picture their face at all. After a while, he slowly came to adapt to the ‘loss’ and the emotion lessened. For him, this became another source of discomfort, because now he felt that somehow this meant he didn’t really care. Which, he said, is clearly not how he felt when he was with the loved one. You can substitute the particular event – leaving a loved one – with any change during a day.
I have described it to the few I’ve talked to about it like this. Imagine you have a collection of many photographic albums. In them you have all the pictures you have taken during your life to date. You have lots of fond memories, and some not so fond. You have important reminders, including things your friends and family have said in conversations. They are special albums, as touching a photo also repeats what was said in those conversations. Below each picture you have a few words like, “Paul and I in Spain in April 2000″.
Now, imagine someone has stolen all the talking photographs from your albums. You no longer have access to any of the vivid images from your past. Worse, you can no longer recall the conversations even from earlier in the week; never mind further back. All you have left are the short summaries. These are all that now hold the thread of your life together. So you know that you and Paul went to Spain in April 2000 (factual); but you can recall nothing without at least a lot of time and effort (episodic).
This is what it is like to live with PEVA. Now imagine work and social environments. In a work environment, you can compensate by fixating on certain really vivid and unique features, say, like the clothes a customer wore when he visited. So if he visits again later, you may recall him. If your work has a visit log, then you can adapt and ‘cheat’ by working the conversation round to a way you can look up the visit. Carrying around and using a notebook is usually acceptable in work. In fact, with time and effort you can find any number of ways to adapt…
…except to social situations. Here you don’t have software to help you. And carrying around and using a notebook isn’t usually acceptable in social situations!! So now you find it very hard to adapt. You forget conversations. So you struggle to keep up with chit chat. By the time you recall, if you recall, what was said a day or more ago, the conversation has moved on. Worse, you forget important things – not just people’s names and faces, but that they said their brother was diagnosed with kidney failure.
To others, you may come across as forgetful (true) or worse, selfish and uncaring; socially awkward. In the end, this becomes isolating. And when you turn to medical science for help and answers, there is blank non-acceptance that there’s any problem.
At this time, I have no answer. Are we three the only people on the planet who cannot visualise and have persistent episodic amnesia? Are the two related as PEVA? Is migraine in any way involved – one of the other two also has migraine; though this is a common condition. To date, I have no evidence that migraine plays a part, except that my migraine and PEVA started sometime around the same point in my life.
- Do you have persistent episodic amnesia? If so, do you have problems visualising too? Do you have migraine?
- Or, if you have migraine or problems visualising, do you have what you see as normal episodic memory (memory and recall of life events, casual conversation and so on)?
- Finally, are you a medical practitioner or researcher who has heard of something like PEVA? Can you put a medical name to it?
If you can provide any answers, or if what I have written rings a bell with you and you have no answer, I’d like to hear from you.
Thank you for reading.
2008 December 7 at 3:44 am
#Or, if you have migraine or problems visualising, do you #have what you see as normal episodic memory (memory #and recall of life events, casual conversation and so on)?
I have problems visualizing things that I have never seen before, and I have an extremely hard time with directions, or putting myself in a map.
I have migraine and visual snow/persistent migraine aura.
I have VERY good episodic memory, very vivid vignettes, visuals, what I wore, who said what, how I felt, etc. The only real way I can navigate is by what intense event happened someplace: Drive down the street past where I talked about a serious health concern with one friend, go straight until I get to the hotel where I met a different friend’s family, turn right past the bus stop I waited at to get to my ex’s ex that one time, then stop under the bridge that looks like the one by so-and-so’s house.
When I’m talking to someone else I leave all of the detail out and just seem to have idiosyncratic guideposts (ie, not really street signs or lights or distance). It works the other way too – whenever I drive down that street I will have an immediate and intense memory of talking about the health concern, etc. These can persist for years, though they do fade some over time.
2008 December 7 at 10:31 am
Thanks, Hyrax.
That’s very interesting. I’d assumed, perhaps, that the variability in visualising also applies to episodic memory. But in the experiment I talked about in Part Two, they asked subjects to imagine something – not recall something – visually.
Your experience of imagining matches mine from your description (I dread giving directions!), but is completely different to my recall. So for me there is no difference between imagining something and recalling it; including not having intense memories triggered.
Thanks for your comment.
2008 December 21 at 11:56 pm
I too have trouble visualizing (imagining and recalling) and suffer from PEVA, but i do not have migraines.
I can remember faces quite well actually, so i can remember people, just not a lot of what has been talked about, at least not without being reminded. But eventually I could forget anything, probably even how to ride a bike. There is one upside to all this though, I can watch a movie for the first time over and over and over again. hehe.
I have always been like this as long as i can remember. There was a short episode of 3 days where i could visualize though, and that was when I found out there was something wrong in the first place. For those 3 days i actually had photographic memory – it was quite amazing to me really. You mentioned finding things around the house, for example, I knew exactly where everything was, even if my roommates had left it lying around, a image appeared in my minds eye of where it was.
As best as I can tell this was brought on by yoga and meditation, and i have never had the the time to devote my self to doing these exercises since then. Or possibly it had nothing to do with those exercise at all, maybe i`ll find the time and energy to find out for certain.
the thread you mentioned might have been http://forum.psychdaily.com/forum.php?t=2564
that is how i found your blog
Dominic
2008 December 22 at 10:48 am
Hi, Dominic,
Thanks for the link: That was the one I was talking about, but couldn’t find again. I’ll update my post with it later.
What you’ve written is very interesting. As you do, I can remember faces (shapes, bananas!) in the sense that I recognise someone, or what something is, on seeing it. But I can’t form a picture of a person’s face, a shape, or whatever. (I think I may need to make that clearer in the original post.) I can relate to your watching a movie experience! That’s one of the few bonuses of this!
I’ve not myself had a period of remission, but I think I used to have a very near photographic memory before it started. I do meditation myself; but started after the PEVA began, so aren’t sure if that’s relevant or not. Myself, I don’t think so but it’d be interesting to hear from others whether they have or have not done meditation or yoga. Certainly my own meditation practice hasn’t helped at all. The only near-onset experience I had was of hypnosis for stress, and as I mentioned the onset of my migraines.
Thanks again for sharing your experience.
Take care.
2009 February 8 at 9:48 pm
“Do you have persistent episodic amnesia? If so, do you have problems visualising too? Do you have migraine?”
Yes, yes and no.
And there was me thinking I was the only one!
Although there have been a handful of moments in my life when I’ve been thinking about a piece of music and all-of-a-sudden actually “heard” the piece I was previously thinking about to the point where I can “hear” it better than I can remember it (an auditory hallucination i suppose), I have failed to have any visual equivalent where my imaginings of a visual scene have resulted in me being able to actually visually experience it to any degree.
Curiously if people close by suddenly realise I’m staring into space and ask me what I’m thinking about, I also fail to be able to put into words what my thought patterns were.
Episodic memory is a big problem for me, unless the ‘episode’ is particularly emotionally charged.
For instance I remember very well when my first love left me due to the intense anguish I felt at the time, yet even though she was arguably the most important person in my life at the time I am totally unable to tell you when we met, how long we were together for or when we split up.
I also seem to take alot longer to remember stuff than most people. I can be reading page 100 of a book and only have a very vague awareness of what happened 10 pages ago. Only if I read the book several times over can I get a ‘coherent storyline’ out of it. Also, I tried a Pimsleur language course and even though I repeated the first lesson 5 or 6 times over still couldnt remember the content of the lesson to the same degree that most would remember in a single session.
This has at times had a huge negative impact on my life to the point that I dismiss myself as thick and unable to learn or see how I can possibly get ahead in life however I manage to keep down a solid job earning above the regional average for my sector. I put this down to my compensatory skills similar to those that porillion has described. And also as described I have an extremely poor social life because I cant seem to follow conversation and social patterns as well as others. I am also totally unable to “filter” audio. I am truly amazed at the ability of some people to be able to follow what a friend is saying in a crowded bar as I strain to make out what they’re saying only being able to pick out a few words here and there.
Wierd huh?
2009 February 9 at 10:24 am
Thank you, Geoff. There’s a lot in what you say that rings bells with me. I even seem to have a much better audio memory than I suspect most people do. Maybe that’s a form of compensation? (I wonder if others have different forms of compensation?)
I’m beginning to suspect that even among the people I’ve read of or heard from (or know) that what I’ve called PEVA (persistent episodic visual amnesia) varies. In my experience on migraine forums, that condition varies. So I suppose it should be no surprise that this is true of PEVA. Again, thank you Geoff for answering whether you had migraines. It’s beginning to look like my condition of having migraines is unrelated to my PEVA. And so PEVA is probably not related to migraine.
I empathise with your reading experience. I still enjoy reading, even if I can’t visualise the images the author describes or easily follow the storyline. Instead I get a lot of satisfaction from “hearing” different actors voicing the characters! (Even if I do forget who I chose to voice those that appear less frequently!)
I even have problems hearing people in a crowd. That’s an interesting point, Geoff. Thank you. I had just supposed that it was “one of those things”. Two swallows don’t make a summer, but I do wonder now whether that’s another symptom.
The impression I get with my experience and what others have written about is that PEVA may be some kind of delaying/suppressing condition – though it’s interesting that it seems to go hand in hand with poor visualisation of imagined things too. My parents split up when I was 19 and I think it started some time after that (poor memory doesn’t help in recalling when, of course!). I wonder if PEVA is a defence mechanism (a form of dissociative amnesia?) to a trauma?
Thanks again for your reply and for your candidness, Geoff.
2009 February 17 at 1:07 am
PEVA as a defence mechanism sits well in my mind considering my personal history. I see no need to go into huge detail, suffice to say I had a traumatic and neglected childhood.
One thing that does strike me when reading my previous post and your reply is that the possible mechanisms in place for that big list of “deficiencies” we’ve managed to put together between us all probably requires good communication between different areas of the brain.
Memory + visual processing for PEVA and
Visual processing + language for reading for example.
Now something I did read about depression in a medical journal (I cant remember where unfortunately) made a claim that those that suffered from depression, also, as a symptom displayed an unsynchronised memory.
Now you have 3 different types of memory and if you just Google “Human Memory” you’ll have an explanation of how it works. What the article said was that although all 3 different types of memory work exactly as they should individually, they dont synchronise correctly so new information doesnt get passed from sensory memory to short-term to long-term memory as efficiently as it should.
If only I could find the article, but its 1 in the morning at the moment and quite frankly I cant be a***ed right now.
So the point I was making, was if depression has this effect on the synchronisation of memory, is it not possible that a specific set of psychosocial or brain chemistry factors could have a similar influence on the relationships between our imaginative faculties?
2009 February 17 at 10:39 am
I must admit I’m leaning to a defence mechanism explanation. I was heavily bullied in my childhood, after which my parents separated and divorced. I seem to recall having had a good, perhaps too good, memory that suddenly changed in my early twenties.
I like your idea of the communication between the different areas of the brain. (This is why I hope a qualified professional will one day find this thread.) Although I’ve called it “amnesia”, I’m not certain that’s a correct term. The nearest form of amnesia (dissociative amnesia) that I’ve read of as a non-expert suggests either a temporary effect, or one limited to a short time period that stays forgotten. I have very vivid dreams that often feature real places. But I have noted that they seem to be from my life before the onset of my own memory/conscious visualisation symptoms. If I’m dreaming of a later place I seem to substitute. For example, I worked recently at a university; which tends to be a distorted version of my high school. But if I dream of being in my high school, it seems at least to be a highly accurate portrayal.
I did suffer from depression, and have wondered whether that this plays a part. I can understand not wanting to find the article at 1am!!! I’ll have a look later, but am very tired myself this morning. It’s not helping my keeping this blog up-to-date having to catch up from my latest cluster of migraines. From what I recall of ‘A’ level psychology (and the Oxford dictionary I have) this division into three sounds right.
Thanks once again for your input, Geoff.
Take care.
2009 March 24 at 2:33 am
I suffer this too, spoke about it in relation to how it’s made painting and drawing so much harder to Dr. Podoll of the Migraine Aura Foundation. He used to have a quote from me on the website under the handle Linzi about it. I have PMA, episodes of hemiplegic and basilar migraine plus more ordinary migraine with aura.
This started for me at the same time as PMA while I was on a graphic design course so I had to drop out as not having a visual memory of any use and not being able to see text easily makes layout and design very awkward. I still love images and if I want to visualise now I can pretend what I want to see is in my peripheral vision and sneak something of a glimpse. No real detail but the shape of something.
If I work at it I can focus on bits – can remember the shape of someone’s nostril – but I can’t remember scenes or complete faces. Words elude me a lot too. I forget what I was talking about and subject jump a lot during conversation.
It’s not *trouble* memorising, or visualising. It’s an abrupt stop in range. My minds eye and my vision are altered. I’m like you, too good a memory with an abrupt change in my early twenties. The onset of my PMA and memory problems coincided with a group of some of the most extreme aura in migraines I’ve had. If it were psychosocial – which I hoped it would be – I’d have expected to see some variation in it’s severity.
I just keep wishing for the right advice and support to fall in my lap.
2009 March 24 at 11:29 am
Hi, Lynsey,
Thank you for your comment. You’re the first commenter that has said they have migraine, which from your description sounds similar to my experience. As more people share their own experience of an inability to visualise, it seems less clear what the underlying reason for it is. But I think it’s a good thing that we are talking about this: Until I found one thread on one website on the whole Internet that Google searched, I thought I was the only one! The more of us that talk about this, the more likely it is that it will get some recognition. At least that’s my hope. I wish I could suggest a support forum or sources of advice for what I’ve come to call “Persistent Episodic Visual Amnesia” (I made that up just to call it something! I’m not medically trained or anything) or PEVA. Just to give it some kind of label. But I know of none. Yet. My earnest hope is that a neurologist or other medical researcher has come across this and is investigating it, and will discover this site. In the meantime I can empathise with your last sentence.
I can offer support sites for PMA – you can find a list on the PMA & Visual Snow FAQs tab.
I wish you the best for the future. Keep popping back here from time to time, and visit the main site: http://porillion.wordpress.com You never know!
Take care.
2009 March 27 at 11:16 am
I thought I ought to pop back and say since I forgot to last time that I’ve found Sudoku and like puzzles to help me develop coping skills for the reduced visual/memory agility. The cross-referencing that I used to do with a visual/memory faculty I’m learning to do with annotations and developing my language skills. It’s working on faculties I had but used less and it’s interesting in itself. Makes it clear how concentrating on different attributes broadens interests.
2009 May 31 at 5:09 am
Hey Porillion, I really enjoyed your article. I have a problem visualizing things as well, as well as what I though was just my memory fading (although I probably am younger than most people here, 17 in August).
I’ll start with my visualization. It’s not as severe as yours, but I am unable to visualize anything about myself, including what I act like. I’m not sure if most people are able to visualize what they act like but I dont have the faintest clue. This wouldn’t be so bad but I have really horrible self-esteem (and I also had severe depression in the last few months as well as getting bullied when I was younger. The bullying wasn’t especially mean spirited but the circumstances led to emotional grief that I feel even today) and I ‘fill in the blanks’ of how I act and what I look like with exagurated awkward actions and, to be blunt, an assface. Having awkward/wierd parents and a lack of supermodels in my family tree keeps me wondering if my depictions of myself are crazy or accurate.
My memory is something I’m seeing a pretty gradual decline in, showing especially in my grades. I really dread school, I can’t concentrate for nothing and lack alot of motivation. However I’ve always had a real good memory combined with a (not to sound arrogant) very logical and intelectual mind. I was able to remember snippets of information from class, daydream (I love daydreaming even though I can’t visualize well, I can recreate emotions, even some I haven’t experienced before, and create a unique kind of depth. I could go on about my daydreams but I don’t want to bore you to tears), and fill in all the missed information with common sense on tests, making A’s easy. However it’s seeming like my memory is slipping and I’m relying more and more on the logical part of my brain. This has led to lots of bad test grades, including my Latin class, which I did great in the first two semesters, but didn’t pass a single test this semester. The good news is I don’t give a s*** about school, so less stress for me.
In arguements or conversations I have to anticipate what someone would say in my position so the dialouge isn’t slowed down by me having to take what could be minutes to but together a comprehensible thought backed by my own experiences or memories. This leads to me saying things that make sense, but I can’t back up with anything concrete. I can easily bs my way through a converstion like this, but I can’t argue or debate well at all.
I hope that paragraph made some sort of sense.
I also dabble in drugs (mostly pot) which I feared was the cause of my memory problem for some time (not ruling it out yet) but I am not a consistant user (smoke once a day for a week, then go two months sober). I enjoy the deeper thoughts I have, the release from the social anxiety I have, and the visualizations, auditory and visual, that are damn near hallucinations.
I saw that Porillion compensated the lack of ability to form visualizations with the intelectual part of his brain when he talked about remembering where things were and such. Do you think that it has strengthened that part of your brain because you use it more than most people? Are you hypervigilant about your thoughts, meaning do you monitor most of, if not all of your thoughts? It may be common for people like us to do something like that, because if you ask me it’s possible there could be a large chunk of the population like us but don’t monitor thier thoughts, so wouldn’t pick up on a weak ability to visualize and might see PEVA as just poor memory.
Thanks in advance
Kevin.
2009 June 1 at 6:23 pm
Hi, Kevin,
Thank you for your comment.
First of all, I want to say that part of why I wrote about this on my blog is that I hope we can get answers eventually. At first I wasn’t sure how many other people there were affected by problems visualising and memory and how they may relate. Since I wrote about this, the statistics alone suggest there is a small percentage of people affected.
If I may ask a question, I’m not sure whether your memory problems relate to factual memory or to memory of life events. In other words remembering things like the date of the Battle of Hastings (or American Civil War dates, depending on where you’re from!), etc. or remembering in visual form things that have happened to you. I’m interested in which, or both, of these affect you. For me and who I have heard from so far, it has been life events not facts. But you seem to be saying it’s facts too (or only facts)?
In answer to your question, I’ve developed a logical and intuitive mind in tandem. I think I did this both before and after I noticed a sudden and dramatic change in my ability to visualise and in my episodic (life events) memory. I’m not sure whether I continued to do so in response to those changes, as I can’t turn the clock back and live a “normal” life! I’d say I’m only vigilant about my thoughts in the sense that I am a practising Buddhist, not because of the problems I have as such.
2009 June 1 at 7:10 pm
Yeah I did leave out the part about remembering life events. Oops.
What I have are very vauge thoughts, no visual memories, mostly factual, like your analogy of the photo album. I guess my factual memory just sucks just cause of drugs ha
When I try to remember something, I remember it in the form of words, like a verbal description comes to mind instead of a picture.
2009 June 2 at 9:57 am
Hi again, Kevin,
Thanks for answering my question. Good luck to us all on getting answers on this! This is why I have written about it here. Can I suggest you check back from time to time in case I find more information, or a neurologist’s interest is ‘piqued’?
Take care.
2009 June 9 at 7:18 pm
Hi,
I have found your blog while searching for “can not visualize” on Google
Amazingly I have discovered, I am not the only one with Episodic Memory issue, too. I do not have migrains or headaches usualy, only intensive pain for few minutes, but once in few months (I have to add here, that a natural healer that I was in contact with actualy said that “you have migrains, you just don’t want to recognise it”).
Regarding Episodic / Autobiographic memory:
1. I became aware at age of 25 that something is strange with my memory:
- I could not remember events from my childhood, except few very weak memories, connected to intensive “neagtive” emotions at time
- Events in my past life tend to blurr, fade away rather quickly; I keep factual knowledge, but feelings, emotions, memories are gone – it is like having an erasor after events occur. Only few things remain.
- I am terrible with dates and personal memory. On the other hand I am quite good with dates and factual memory.
2. This condition seems since ever. However childhood seems almost completely “erased”. Few memories remain from high school, university … more from more recent years. What I do REMEMBER BETTER from more recent years (after University) are emotionaly intensed events: – in childhood it was rather “negative” emotions, more recently more very “positive” emotions and some “negative”.
3. It seems I “shut down” emotional connection to a person, when he/she is not present. It in a way just “disappears” from my life until next occassion/meeting. It could be girlfriend, friend, family members …
Part 2 is comming soon
2009 June 12 at 9:21 am
Hi, Marko,
Thank you for your comment. It’s been very helpful to learn of your own experience. Once enough people have said what their experiences are, I’ll write a new post looking at what’s common and what differs. Can I ask whether the memories you do have are visual or not? In other words, can you easily form pictures in your mind of them?
Take care.
2009 June 17 at 12:05 pm
Hi, I am greatful for your decision to solve Big Mistery
Actualy few memories from childhood are all visual. I can see what happened then. It is like replaying it my mind. Also latter memories are mostly clearly visual … only sometimes it is like knowledge/feeling that I had these experiences, with not so clear or absent visual component … however even to connect all these experiences with any date or age of mine is kind of impossible. I have no clue when it happened, only roughly can remember period of my life. I am always amazed by people who say: ” when I was 3 yrs old, I did this and that”, “I first met my girlfriend on 19th February 2002″ and such. I don’t remember when I met any of my girlfriends. For some time I was making something like diary in the past, but didnt help. It is funny however I am pretty good with dates, years and numbers on factual memory…
2009 June 17 at 2:00 pm
Here I am again, Part II on the way
On the other hand I find it interesting that in some foreign cities it was like Deja Vu feeling – everything was kind of known to me (Prague) or very easy to orientate (Hannover). Actualy I am very good navigator
What I have learned is also: the less you can remember past experiences, less you can plan your future. It has to do with “Mental time travel” – search it on Google.
I do have a theory what happened to some of us: it could be either physical accident, or some medicine in our younger years, or …:
our own psychological protection, so that we could survive. We became “detached” of our existing selves at one moment of our lives. SO now, at least for some of us, there are 2 of each: one we are aware of, and one we are not fully aware off. If we have managed to separate ourselves in the past, I fully believe that we can glue/fusion ourselves in the future. Or maybe today? If our desire is strong enough … we can do it. Everything is possible
2009 June 17 at 2:10 pm
One more thing …
look at this: http://www.memorylab.org/Research.htm
It says Episodic memory is constructive in nature, suited to simulating future.. Now I can understand better, why it could be “shut down” in some cases. As it is constructive – for the future, simulated “outcome of the future” could be something we did not know how to handle, so we shut it down …
Actualy I remember now, that I was speaking to before mentioned natural healer quite some months ago about my “loss” of episodic memory and he said exact same thing – I did this in order to survive …
2009 June 17 at 6:35 pm
Hi, Marko,
I think most people who have commented who have this visualisation/visual memory problem have a theory. I think that’s probably quite natural! At the moment, I simply can’t say from any objective viewpoint. It’s one of the answers I hope this website will eventually help us to get.
Take care.
2009 June 17 at 6:33 pm
Hi, Marko,
Thank you for sharing this. The more people who do so, the better picture we can get of how people’s visualisation and visual memory differs or is the same.
Take care.
2009 June 17 at 2:21 pm
Try thisas well …
http://www.pnas.org/content/104/5/1726.full
2009 June 17 at 3:12 pm
interesting one
http://www.memorylab.org/Files/Schacter_ANYAS_2008.pdf
2009 June 17 at 6:44 pm
Hi, Marko,
Once again, you have my thanks for finding such an excellent article!
Take care.
2009 June 17 at 6:43 pm
Hi, Marko,
Once again, my many thanks for finding this site.
Take care.
2009 July 7 at 12:40 pm
I have pretty much no ability to visualize, or to imagine sounds, tastes, touch, or smell either.
And, I have very little in the way of episodic memories. I wouldn’t consider this to be amnesia, although I suppose it’s not an inappropriate term for it.
It seems to me to be the natural result of not being able to imagine sensory data. If you can’t see images in your mind, how can you recall visual experiences?
So, my memories consist of knowing that things happened, without the actual experiences actually being there to recall. With no memories to attach anything to, though, the feelings and probably often the knowing what happened fades away as well in time.
It’s always been this way for me, I believe. I’m not terribly concerned about it, as I seem to be able to function well enough without episodic memory. From what I’ve observed, people have a wide range of visualization ablities, from nearly none to being able to see images in their minds as clearly as in real life. I’m guessing that people have a similiar range of episodic memory clarity, from photographic memory to nearly nothing.
I don’t have migraines, by the way.
2009 July 8 at 5:07 pm
Hi, Michael,
Your post seems to go to the heart of the first part of the debate: Whether the “amnesia” is really a condition, or within the normal range of how people can visualise. In other words, that not being able to visually recall episodic memory is simply an extension of a normal, if possibly rare, lack of ability to visualise. My partner would seem to fit into this first category. But I, and many others here, do seem to have social problems and other side-symptoms that suggest there can be a related problem. The difficulty here is defining it, and working out whether it is related to visualisation, or a separate more “known of” problem that we’ve come to associated with our unusual inability to visualise. And that’s the debate!
Thank you for your contribution, and for answering the question on migraine.
Take care.
2009 June 17 at 6:41 pm
Hi, Marko,
Thank you for finding this site, it’s very interesting. I’ll read it more thoroughly, and may add a post on it with credit to you for finding it. My girlfriend is a nurse, and I also recently sat in with medical students (student doctors) as a training/teaching exercise. All of those noted that my own experience of “migraine” shows some overlap with a type of epilepsy called simple partial seizures. Reading around the subject, I had noted that epilepsy can cause damage to the hippocampus with associated recall and new memory creation problems. I need to do more research, I feel!
Take care.