Why do people with amnesia forget things like the names of people, or past memories; but they don’t forget how to speak or how to count and do maths?
In: Biology
There are two kinds of long-term human memory: explicit (or declarative), and implicit, and they are stored in entirely different parts of the brain. Explicit memories include episodic memories (specific personal experiences) and semantic memories (factual information). Episodic memories, and explicit memories in general, are most commonly affected by amnesia.
Implicit memories, including procedular memories (knowledge of how to perform tasks without conscious awareness of previous experiences), are stored in different parts of the brain from explicit memories. Amnesia is usually associated with damage to the hippocampus, which is heavily involved with explicit memories but not particularly involved with implicit memories. However, extremely heavy brain damage could lead to the loss of both kinds of memory.
Sources: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implicit_memory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implicit_memory#Multiple_memory_system) , [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explicit_memory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explicit_memory#Normal_brain_function)
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