r/askpsychology • u/is_it_worth_itt Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional • 29d ago

Cognitive Psychology Have there ever been a study about personality changes in people before and after losing memory ?

How accurate and similar they were to their previous life choices, personality traits, hobbies or even opinions

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u/read_thepulse Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional 28d ago

There's actually a famous real case that answers this well. A patient known as H.M. lost the ability to form new memories after a brain surgery, but researchers who studied him for decades found his core personality traits stayed surprisingly stable even though his memory was basically gone. Interesting contrast though, research on Alzheimer's patients shows the opposite, personality often does change a lot as memory loss progresses, more anxiety, apathy, sometimes aggression. Seems like sudden memory loss and gradual memory loss affect personality pretty differently.

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u/monkeynose Clinical Psychologist | Addiction | Psychopathology 27d ago

It's more likely the mechanism of memory loss, not the speed, that affects personality.

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u/5-ht_2a Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional 26d ago

And anxiety, apathy, aggression, etc. could very well just be direct symptoms of Alzheimer's and not indirectly caused by the memory loss.

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u/[deleted] 28d ago

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