We all have a tendency to forget, get confused, or sometimes focus on the wrong things. This can be due to overloading of information, stress, distraction and other reasons. These occurrences are normal, and we get over them naturally or after taking some rest. But things get complicated when you consciously forget everything and your brain fail to create a new memory. However, this might seem unreal to you, but this can happen to anyone due to medical reasons such as damage to the central nervous system.
You will be surprised to know that we have very few cases in the real world, while we have numerous characters in books and movies. "Notable examples include Lucy Whitmore in 50 First Dates, Dory in Finding Nemo and Finding Dory, Jonathan Archer in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode, Sanjay in Ghajini and more." This kind of memory loss is defined as Amnesia.
However, the real-life case of Clive Wearing's memory loss is different. Usually, there are two types of memory loss diseases, anterograde Amnesia and retrograde Amnesia. While the most fictional characters we have mentioned here suffer from either anterograde or retrograde, Clive Wearing suffered from both, and it is the "most devastating case of amnesia ever recorded." 83-year-old British musician Clive has a memory of 7 to 30 seconds only.
Read Dengue vs. COVID-19: Symptoms, when & where to test, ways of prevention
Who is Clive Wearing?
Born in 1938, Clive Wearing was a British musicologist, keyboardist, conductor, and tenor. He was successful in his career and was known for editing the Orlando de Lassus. Further, he sang at Westminster Cathedral for many years as a tenor lay clerk. Besides, he was also a chorus master and worked with the London Sinfonietta Chorus as well as with Covent Garden.
Apart from these, Wearing founded the Europa Singers of London in 1968 and performed in numerous places such as the London Opera Centre, Monteverdi Vespers, Russian Cathedral, etc.
In 1981 he worked for BBC and made special content for BBC Radio 3 on the "day of the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer."
Despite his eventful career, Clive Wearing cannot remember much of it due to his rare medical condition.
Read: Harmful Effects of Mobile Phones on Children’s Health
What Happened to Clive Wearing?
In 1985 when he was 45 years old, Wearing contracted "herpesviral encephalitis which is a herpes simplex virus." This simple virus attacked his central nervous system. After that, he could not store new memories. Besides, he has also been unable to put together his past memories. He is also unable to control emotions and has an unstable mood.
Later it was found that Wearing has been having this problem due to total Amnesia. As his hippocampus was damaged, he is totally unable to form new memories; because of that, Clive's memory lasts between 7 and 30 seconds. Hippocampus is an area in our brain that needs to transfer memories from short-term to long-term memory.
Every day he wakes up every 20 seconds, which means his consciousness restarts every 20 seconds. During this time, he keeps questioning why he has not met a doctor. Wearing continuously believes that he just wakes up from the comatose stage. Further, if he engages in a discussion, Wearing cannot stay in the flow for more than 30 seconds. Sometimes he forgets the context in 10 seconds and starts again. He cannot speak longer than a few sentences.
But Clive remembers a few memories of his life before 1985, such as his love for the second wife and his children from the first marriage. Every time he meets with these people, he greets them joyously, and cannot remember their names.
He has featured in many documentaries, and some researchers also conducted research about his condition.
Moreover, many fictional movies have been made on Amnesia that we have mentioned earlier. But if you want to visualize the memory loss, you can watch a Bangla drama "Chirokal Aaj" to better understand the amnesia condition. Chirokal Aaj has recently become a center of attraction in Bangladesh. It was based on Clive Wearing's attack on anterograde Amnesia and retrograde Amnesia.
