Final answer:
Anterograde amnesia is characterized by the inability to form new long-term memories after a trauma while retaining memories from before the event. It usually results from damage to the hippocampus and affects the consolidation of information from short-term to long-term storage.
Step-by-step explanation:
The two key features of anterograde amnesia include the following:
- Inability to remember new information post-trauma, meaning there is an impairment in forming new long-term memories after the event that caused the amnesia.
- Retention of memories prior to the trauma, indicating that only the ability to consolidate new memories is affected, not previous long-term stores.
Anterograde amnesia often occurs due to brain trauma, such as a concussion, that affects the hippocampus, compromising the transfer of information from short-term to long-term memory.
As a result, people with anterograde amnesia struggle with creating new episodic and semantic memories but may still be able to develop new procedural memories, which include habits and skills.
For instance, they may not recall meeting new people or reading a magazine, but they could get better at solving a puzzle over time despite not remembering previous attempts.