Patient JB presents symptoms similar to Jason Bourne of the Bourne Identity series. JB is versed in many languages, is skilled in hand-to-hand combat, driving, has good problem solving skills, and is an accurate marksman all while not knowing who he is similar to that of Jason Bourne. JB seems to be experiencing retrograde amnesia which is a condition where an individual is unable to recall memories in the past. More specifically, JB demonstrates functional retrograde amnesia as he displays a memory loss for past events without physical, brain damage, but possibly from the emotional clout of his previous actions (Cohen & Banich). Neurological studies such as an electroencephalogram, computerized tomography scan, and a magnetic resonance imaging can confirm the suspicions of brain pathology. Although JB suffers from retrograde amnesia, he does not seem to present symptoms for anterograde amnesia, or inability to form concurrent memories, which allow him to piece together information in the present in order to remember past events. Many of JB’s symptoms reflect that of Patient K with some poignant differences. Patient K was 53 years old when his amnesia was onset when his wife and children found him on the kitchen floor unresponsive. When he awoke he thought he was 14 years old and had lost all memory in the previous 40 years with no structural brain damage. Like JB, he displayed no significant anterograde amnesia, is aware of his impairment, and experienced stressful situations prior to the onset of the amnesia. In contrast, Patient K displays very vivid details for autobiographical and semantic memories such as remembering seeing Broadway plays Hellzapoppin and Sons O’ Fun on trips to New York City with his father as well as identifying prominent figures in 1985 such as William “the Refrigerator” Perry of the Chicago bears or “Rambo” played by Sylvester Stallone (Treadway et.al.). In addition, Patient K loses skills due to his retrograde amnesia which include his inability to drive, shave, function household electronics even changes in his handwriting and accent (Treadway et.al) whereas Patient JB retains his hand-to-hand combat skills, ability to speak multiple languages, and extreme marksmanship. JB demonstrates spared vs. impaired memory systems as it seems that his procedural memory remains intact as his declarative memory is impaired. Memories that are dependent on the hippocampal system are declarative memories and this is impaired in JB. Declarative memory accumulates facts and events as well as develops relational memories of particular events that put people, places, information, and temporal aspects together (Cohen & Banich). It is broken down into episodic memory, which contains autobiographical data, and semantic memory, which contains world knowledge. JB would not be able to remember his name, address, relatives due to his autobiographical memory impairment. Although JB remembers his visit to Berlin, it is likely he would be unable to name sports teams, public figures, or substantial events due to his semantic memory impairment. In contrast, procedural memory is independent of the hippocampal system, including the medial temporal lobe, and supports attainment and expression of skills through incremental learning, representations of individual experiences that are nonrelational, and involves tuning processing systems (Cohen & Banich). JB demonstrates impairments in both episodic and semantic memory while still likely able to acquire new skills and perform them. For procedural memory the striatum, as well as the motor cortex and cerebellum, are important for skill learning (Cohen & Banich). Based off the symptoms of Patient JB, there is likely an issue with his hippocampal system while his striatum, motor cortex, and cerebellum are likely unaffected. Testing JB on the autobiographical memory index, news events test, cities test, or recall-recognition experiments where certain images are displayed and then
