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Can your brain trauma make you lose your memory?

On Behalf of | Dec 8, 2020 | Personal Injury

Illinois residents like you have a long road of recovery after suffering from brain trauma. The worse the trauma, the longer the recovery period. 

Unfortunately, if your memory ends up affected after an injury, it can also take a while to recover. But how does brain trauma tie into memory loss and damage? 

Why is short term memory more common?

The Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center takes a look at the ties between brain health and memory. Simply put, the brain stores your memory. If the brain itself suffers from damage, then your memory might also malfunction. 

Short term memory gets stored in the frontal lobe, while long term memory gets stored in the medial lobe. This means short term memory loss or damage is more common by far. Short term memory lasts 15 to 30 seconds. This means a victim suffering from short term memory damage might not be able to recall things that fall in this period of time. This can lead to: 

  • Forgetting important appointment dates or times 
  • Forgetting things you were just told 
  • Misplacing items by setting them down and forgetting when or where you did that 
  • Losing track of daily chores 

Why do you lose memory of the accident?

Many victims are also unable to recall the events that lead up to the brain trauma. If you cannot recall this, you likely never will. Memory loss surrounding traumatic events sometimes happens due to the traumatic nature of the incident. But most times, the short term memory storage “misfires” from the injury. It never actually stores the memory; it does not exist to recall. 

So brain trauma can make you lose your memory. The aftermath of an injury sometimes lasts for weeks, months or years and you may struggle with memory loss through this time.