If the short-term memory does not work properly, the memories are lost. There are many statements made in the film 50 First Dates about memory loss. Some are true, and others aren’t. Drew Barrymore’s Lucy is a woman that has suffered a serious accident, which caused her memory loss. Adam Sandler’s Henry falls for her, and he has to figure out a way to make her happy. You may not notice that the movie’s statements are accurate due to its interesting plot.
Lucy does not have Goldfields’ Syndrome as the doctor claims. This syndrome, explains the doctor, is scar tissue that converts short-term memories to long-term during sleep. It means she’s not encoding. Therefore, during sleep, she can’t transfer information between memory stages. This statement is accurate, but it’s actually called Anterograde Amnesia. Anterograde Amnesia can be defined as a condition in which one has lost the ability to form long lasting memories. However, they still have semantic memories that are facts like knowing about the president. While they may retain their semantic memory, they might lose their episodic memory which is a personal experience such as going to prom. Every patient is unique, and every case will be different depending on where and how much damage has been done. Lucy’s car accident caused damage to her temporal-lobe. This lobe plays a role in implicit memory. In the movie it seems that her conscious awareness was still functioning. She is still able drive, to paint, or build wafflehouses. This would be called procedural Memory. Lucy is seen laughing at a doctor’s comment in the next scene. The doctor then replies, “As you can tell your sense is humor is intact. It is here.” He continues by saying “magnificent Amygdala”. The amygdala doesn’t have anything to with humor. It is actually two lima-bean sized neural clusters which enable fear and aggression. Throughout the film, many other details are left unsaid. Lucy is not able to retrieve information. She cannot transfer information from her long-term storage to her conscious short-term level. Her memory storage is unchanged. She can recall that she was an art professor, where her home is, who is in her family, and other things. Additionally, the memory was displayed. This reproduction is done without the need for retrieval aids. Lucy can remember information from before the accident but not new information. Lucy is also shown a character with worse memory loss than Lucy. This character is called “Ten Second Tom”. Tom is a character who only remembers things for ten second before forgetting them again. He could be cared for in a hospital. Unfortunately, it’s not stated whether he remembers his children or wife. It is important to note this because it was revealed in a Clive Wearing video, The Man With No Short-Term Memories, that Wearing had a short-term memory of only seven seconds. Despite this, Wearing still recognized his wife. Wearing was able live at his house, yet Tom was put in the hospital. Tom, as he is walking up a flight of stairs, encounters Henry & Lucy. How was he able to remember his destination in just ten second? Wearing has the ability to live in his own home. Tom’s story would help answer some of these questions.
Henry almost gives up on his relationship and leaves the boat. Lucy, however, does not get upset when Henry asks if Lucy remembers. Instead, she leads him to an area where she displays multiple paintings depicting him and tells them that she often dreams of him. The fact that Lucy had some kind of memory about him was wonderful, but also confusing. With Anterograde AMnesia it’s not very common to be able to retrieve the new memories you created in your unconscious mind. Hollywood uses inaccuracies and Goldfield’s Syndrome to spice up the storyline. Many other accuracies were mentioned, such as retrieval, recalling, encoding or storing memory. This movie accurately demonstrated many memory terms.