- People have two types of memory, declarative and procedural. Declarative memory is either episodic for time and places or semantic for facts and knowledge. Procedural memory is remembering how to do something, like ride a bicycle, play the piano or draw a picture. Memory disorders affect either short-term or long-term memories. Amnesia resulting from trauma typically affects memory of events just prior to the trauma but may also wipe out memories of a person's entire life prior to the trauma. A person with anterograde amnesia cannot recall events that occur after the trauma. Amnesia in any form may be temporary or permanent.
- Dementia is loss of memory due to disease. The damage is degenerative and often nonreversible. One leading cause of dementia in older adults is Lewy body disease, which is a development of abnormal protein structures in parts of the brain. Other causes of dementia are strokes, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, Huntington's, Pick's and progressive supranuclear palsy. Some forms of dementia may be treated if the causes are found early, including brain tumors, metabolic changes, alcohol abuse and use of certain medications.
- Korsakoff syndrome results from nutritional depletion, namely, thiamine deficiency. With this condition, short-term memory is intact but impairment comes with learning over long periods. The attempt to remember a series of events meets with severe disorientation in time, and real memories become mixed with other out-of-context memories. Computerized tomography (CT) scans conducted on people diagnosed with Korsakoff syndrome typically show cortical atrophy involving the frontal lobes of the brain. With medical treatment, memory problems resulting from thiamine deficiency may reverse over time.
- Mild cognitive impairment is a stage of memory loss that occurs after normal memory loss due to aging but prior to diagnosable dementia. This condition involves language, thinking and judgment in addition to memory loss. You may notice that your memory is not what it used to be and are aware of slips in memory. This condition is not severe enough to interfere with everyday life or activities but it might be a sign of later developing dementia or Alzheimer's.
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