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04/20/2024 02:11:38 am

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‘Groundhog Day’ Amnesia: A Memory Loss Conundrum That Left Experts Mystified

Root Canal

(Photo : Getty Images/David McNew ) In a study published in the journal Neurocase, one amnesia patient in Northern England has been endlessly reliving a dental appointment in 2005 daily.

A memory loss condition, which was similar to the phenomenon experienced in the film "Groundhog Day," has recently left experts mystified. In a study published in the journal Neurocase, one amnesia patient in Northern England has been endlessly reliving a dental appointment in 2005 daily.

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The strange story began in March 2005 when a 38-year-old man went to his dental appointment where he underwent a root canal surgery and had a local anesthetic injection. After the hour-long procedure, the patient appeared pale, slow and minimally responsive. He was then taken to the hospital and was admitted for several weeks.

The patient, however, was unable to remember anything for longer than 10 minute intervals. And those periods of memory expanded to 90 minutes, where they've been jammed ever since. Several tests after, the patient was diagnosed with a rare form of "anterograde" amnesia. According to CBS News, the condition is the inability to form new memories and is usually accompanied by brain damage.

Doctors said the patient had neither brain damage nor psychological dysfunction. They also didn't believe the condition was caused by anesthesia instead a vasovagal incident, which referred to a possible disruption of the vagus nerve in its role to regulate heart rate and blood pressure, was suspected. Since the condition included "complete and profound" forgetting, it may need its own category.

Meanwhile, Dr. Gerald Burgess, a clinical psychologist who's treating the man, doesn't think the cause of the memory loss of the patient, who was only identified as a former member of the U.K. military, is only the result of the root canal procedure, ABC News reported.

"I think we learned so much, assessing and working with the patient," Burgess said. "One thing is that we should perhaps not be so stuck in thinking that profound amnesia only occurs in the context of visible damage to the brain's... structures."

Burgess also suggested that there's a chance that a neuro-chemical or neuro-electrical event occurred and that it may have permanently impacted how memories are stored and formed. UPI has learned that Burgess is now asking the global medical community for help in identifying similar cases in the hopes of finding out why this happened to the patient.

The patient's condition, which is similar to the "Groundhog Dog" amnesia is fascinating, but it is also a profound mystery since there was no visible structure damage. The condition also made experts realized that there's a lack of technology to directly explore the depths of the human brain.

"It's fascinating, but it's a mystery and it's very humbling because when something like this happens you realize we don't yet have technology to inquire directly into human brain," non-profit Brain Observatory director Dr. Jacopo Annese said.

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