Epilepsy and Memory… | October 21, 2018

To say that lack of memory is a major worry for those of us with epilepsy is hardly a surprise. In fact, it’s the number one concern. Simply put, memory is our brain’s ability to store information and find it again later. Chemical and electrical changes happen in your brain when new memories are made. It’s a natural brain process that requires continuing attention and recording by parts of your brain. Seizures interfere with your memory by interfering with attention or input of information. Confusion often follows a seizure, and during this foggy time, new memory traces aren’t being laid down in the brain. Tonic-clonic (grand mal) seizures in which you lose consciousness can interfere with normal brain processes and disrupt the registration phase of short-term memory. Sometimes longer term memories from the period prior to the seizure are lost as well, since these memories may have not yet being fully integrated into your brain’s memory system. There are many different ways to classify how memory works. Some people rely more on their verbal memory, remembering in terms of words or sounds, while others use their visual memory, relying on pictures or spatial relationships. This can be for lots of reasons, including the type of seizures you have, the effects of medication, the effect of concentration or mood, lack of sleep, age, or the effect of epilepsy surgery. Common everyday memory problems include: Being unable to come up with a word that we feel is “on the tip of our tongue”, apparently because of a verbal memory processing problem. Having to go back to check to see if something was done, such as turning off the stove, probably reflecting a failure to pay adequate attention at the time. Forgetting where we put something, probably a visual-spatial memory process problem. […]

Click here to view full article