Any good, scientifically-accurate media on retrograde amnesia?

April 2, 2016 2:18 AM

Open to fiction and nonfiction; books, documentaries, podcast episodes, news articles, etc. Nothing that puts me to sleep, please. Would prefer newer works informed by the latest science and works that are more personal, emotional, and detailed, rather than removed, dry, and general. Also, while I realize anterograde amnesia is much more common, I'm really only interested in retrograde amnesia. What caused the RA does not matter.
posted by iamfantastikate to Media & Arts (2 answers total)

Oliver Sacks is your go-to here.

Here's an article from the New Yorker.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 3:44 AM on April 2, 2016

You may have trouble finding good accounts of this because pure retrograde amnesia is pretty rare. Most of the time, it comes in combination with anterograde amnesia (e.g., after head injuries and illness). You can get it as the result of a thalamic lesion. Here is a scientific article detailing such a case: http://www.christofflab.ca/pdfs/2009/01/miller-et-al-2001.pdf

Here is another (more famous) scientific case study of a patient with different pathophysiology: http://alicekim.ca/Brain98_121.pdf

I know scientific articles aren't exactly what you were hoping for, but with a rare phenomenon it may tough to find anything less dry/removed/dense.
posted by Mrs.Spiffy at 4:24 AM on April 4, 2016