FORGETFULNESS: TYPES, CAUSES AND WHEN THEY ARE DANGEROUS - NEUROPSYCHOLOGY - 2025

A forgotten is the loss of information that previously existed in memory. For example, not remembering the name of someone we just met, the location of the keys or forgetting a phone number are considered forgetfulness that we can all have on a daily basis. (Harvard Hatlh Publications, 2013).

Forgetfulness can happen at any age, usually because we don't pay enough attention. However, as we grow older, we worry about these and wonder what their meaning might be.

Therefore, healthy people can experience this type of memory loss. However, some are more evident as age increases; Unless they are extreme and persistent, they should not be considered indicators of a memory deficit (Harvard Hatlh Publications, 2013).

When these forgetfulness significantly interfere with daily activities, they can be a relevant indicator of mild cognitive impairment (Calero-García et al., 2014).

Currently, all the factors that can increase the occurrence of this type of cognitive failure are not exactly known. However, it seems that aging is associated with a poorer performance of cognitive functions and more specifically memory (Carrigan & Barkus, 2016).

Furthermore, the improvement of evaluation and diagnostic techniques have considerably increased the number of cases diagnosed with dementia. This fact therefore has given rise to the appearance of numerous concerns and anxiety about the suffering of this type of pathologies in the middle-aged population (Carrigan & Barkus, 2016).

Types of forgetting

The Harvard Medical School, in one of its health publications, has pointed out a list of six normal memory problems or types of forgetfulness:

Temporality - forgetfulness over time

As time passes it is normal that we tend to forget certain events. We are likely to forget some information we just learned; however, when information is used, it also lasts. Therefore, the memories that we use frequently will be more resistant to forgetting (Harvard Hatlh Publications, 2013).

Although any forgetfulness can worry us, numerous experimental studies show that when information is not used, these memories weaken until we lose them, giving way to new, more useful memories (Harvard Hatlh Publications, 2013).

The best strategy to store different information or memories in our memory is practice. That is, the more we talk or think about such information, the more we will be using it and therefore the more resistant it will be to oblivion. When we try to memorize specific information, it is very useful to repeat it in different trials (ARRP, 2016).

Forgetfulness due to lack of attention

Many of the memory failures that we have every day are the product of inattention. For example, many times we are not able to remember where we put our smartphone a second ago and we think we have lost it, but this is because at first we have not paid attention to where we have placed it (Harvard Hatlh Publications, 2013).

When we are thinking about something else or doing different activities simultaneously, it is likely that we do not encode all the information efficiently or, on the other hand, that we do not remember to do something that we had planned: attend an appointment or take a treatment (Harvard Hatlh Publications, 2013).

If we focus our attention on what we are doing or thinking at a particular moment, it will help us to solve many of these failures. In addition, when we forget what we are doing, it is very useful to mentally retrace our steps (ARRP, 2016).

Forgotten by blockages

Surely many times you have been asked a question and you have felt that you know it but you are not able to find an answer, you have it on "the tip of your tongue." (Harvard Hatlh Publications, 2013).

This is one of the examples of memory blocking, when we want to remember something and we are temporarily unable to access it. In many cases, this disability is due to the fact that different memories or similar memories are interfering with the information retrieval (Harvard Hatlh Publications, 2013).

Different studies show that these blocks are more frequent as the age increases. For example, when we are not able to remember a name and we say several of them before the correct one (Harvard Hatlh Publications, 2013).

Despite all this, most of us are able to recover the blocked memory in a time no longer than a few minutes (Harvard Hatlh Publications, 2013).

It is often helpful to mentally review or write down the different elements or facts that we will need to explain before discussing them. In addition, in a moment of blocking, it can help us to remember the contextual details of the information that we want to recover (ARRP, 2016).

Forgotten by wrong attributions

Many times we remember an event with precision but we assign it the wrong details regarding the time, place or the people involved. For example: we remember a specific news item but we do not remember if we have read it or have been told it.

At other times, we believe that we have an original thought when in reality we have read or heard it at another time, but we forget how we have acquired it (Harvard Hatlh Publications, 2013)

These types of events are considered erroneous attributions and, in the same way as other memory failures, it is common for them to become more frequent with increasing age (Harvard Hatlh Publications, 2013).

Age, workload, stress, among other factors make it difficult to acquire details of the facts, since it is possible that attention or concentration difficulties may occur, and even to process information quickly and efficiently (Harvard Hatlh Publications, 2013).

On the other hand, it is normal that the most remote or oldest memories are susceptible to erroneous attributions.

To avoid erroneous attributions, it may be useful to make a mental drawing of the keys and details of the event to accurately activate the memory. In addition, concentrating on the place, the moment, the people, the reason for the event and the topics of conversation can help us to efficiently and accurately recover memories (ARRP, 2016).

Forgetfulness due to suggestibility

The information that we learn prior to an event can be accidentally incorporated into the memory of an event or incident, although said experience does not include the details that we are adding (Harvard Hatlh Publications, 2013).

Suggestion can trick our memory into thinking that a fact is real.

Forgotten by bias

Even the most accurate memories are not a 100% reflection of reality. All the facts that we store in our memory will be filtered through our prejudices, personal experiences, beliefs, knowledge and even our state of mind (Harvard Hatlh Publications, 2013).

All these circumstances will be biases that alter the memories that we are encoding or recovering.

Forgotten by persistence

There are certain memories that are very resistant to forgetting, especially those related to traumatic events, negative feelings or fears. These memories can reflect reality or be a negative distortion (Harvard Hatlh Publications, 2013).

Specifically, people with depression or post-traumatic stress disorder can have recurring and very disturbing negative memories (Harvard Hatlh Publications, 2013).

Causes of forgetfulness

In middle-aged and older adults, especially those in their 60s, more than half express concerns about their memory (Harvard Hatlh Publications, 2015).

However, there are many slight forgetfulness that are the product of different conditions and not clinical signs of some type of disease. These forgetfulness are rather the product of structural or functional changes caused by age (Harvard Hatlh Publications, 2015).

As we age, we may experience different changes that can lead to failures or deficits in some cognitive functions. For example, it may take more time to process information or retrieve a response from memory.

This reduction in processing speed can often be mistaken for memory problems; however, if we give ourselves enough time, the information can be retrieved efficiently (Smith et al., 2016).

In general, age-related memory loss is related to (Smith et al., 2016):

• Hippocampal volume reductions.
• Reduction of hormonal factors
• Decreased blood profusion in different brain regions.

Despite these conditions, increasing age will not always mean the existence of memory loss even at a minimal level.

Our brain is capable of producing new neurons at any age. Although it is true that neurogenesis occurs essentially during the development stage, numerous studies have described it in adults.

Lifestyle, health habits, physical exercise, routines and daily activities will be an important factor both in the regulation of adult neurogenesis and in the optimal maintenance of all our cognitive functions (Smith et al., 2016).

When are forgetfulness pathological?

In the case of young adults, when forgetfulness appears suddenly, repetitively and is global, that is, they affect many domains or an important time interval, we must consider this fact as a sign of alarm before the possible existence of a hemispheric compromise or brain damage.

In addition, in the case of older adults we must take into account some of the following signs that could be indicators of possible cognitive impairment (Smith et al., 2016):

• Significant difficulties in performing simple tasks (getting dressed, washing dishes, paying for groceries) and forgetting how to do things that have been done daily or very frequently.
• Difficulty or inability to remember / describe situations in which forgetting some information has interfered with the performance of an activity.
• Finding yourself lost or disoriented in familiar places; difficulty / inability to follow directions.
• Difficulty making decisions.

Conclusions

Currently, the number of medical consultations related to memory problems has increased considerably. In most of the cases they are about daily forgetfulness or normal memory failures.

We must bear in mind that these failures are due to different conditions such as inattention or work overload and that therefore they are "remediable".

When we notice that we have difficulty remembering some things, we must pay attention to both their frequency and the volume of forgetfulness. Although we all have to be alarmed, it is rare that a daily forgetfulness is an indicator of the development of some type of disease or dementia.

References

1. AARP. (2016). 6 Types of Normal Memory Lapses. Obtained from AARP: aarp.org
2. APS. (2012). When We Forget to Remember Failures in Prospective Memory Range From Annoying to Lethal. Obtained from Association for Psychological science: psychologicalscience.org
3. Calero-García, M., Navarro-González, E., Gómez-Ceballos, L., López Pérez-Díaz, A., Torres-Carbonell, I., & Calero-García, M. (2008). Forgetfulness and memory: relationships between objective and subjective memory of old age. Rev Esp Geriatr Gerontol, 43 (5), 299-307.
4. Carrigan, N., & Barkus, E. (2016). A systematic review of cognitive failures in daily life: Healthy popularions. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 63, 29-42.
5. Harvard Medical School. (2013). Forgetfulness 7 types of normal memory problems. Retrieved from Harvard Health Publications: health.harvard.edu
6. Harvard Medical School. (2015). Improving Memory: Understanding age-related memory loss. Retrieved from Harvard Health Publications: health.harvard.edu
7. Smith, M., Robinson, L., & Segal, R. (2016). Age-Related Memory Loss. Obtained from HelpGuide: helpguide.org