MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

My wife acquired anterograde amnesia after a car accident. This device may or may not have worked for her: she would probably have discovered the device anew every time (as in, every 10 minutes or so), although she would probably be pleased each time.

Thankfully she fully recovered after a few weeks. It takes a lot of patience to deal with someone like that, and you could tell it frequently caused a lot of frustration on her part. Every 10 minutes or so in fact.

Glad she recovered!

Yeah, given OP's post, I didn't think this user's comment had a happy ending. That's great.

Yeah, should've lead differently.

That illustrates the difference between anterograde amnesia and dementia. Dementia is a general degradation of the brain that includes memory but you can have amnesia with an otherwise perfectly functional brain. A patient with dementia would never text her kids as in OP's case.

Glad that your wife got over it.

i thought "acquired" was a good clue

My grandpa had dementia. Last time me and my mom flew over to visit he didn't recognize either of us the first day. He didn't even remember having a daughter. Second day he vaguely recognized my mom but not me.

Third and last day of our stay, as soon as I entered the living room he lit up and exclaimed my name. We sat and talked for hours, reminiscing past events with great details, until we had to leave for the plane home.

What exactly causes anterograde amnesia? Why is it temporary for some people and permanent for others?

There's no single cause. Forming memories requires many parts of the brain. Injury to or illness in any one of them can cause anteretrograde amnesia.

It's like asking "what makes a person unable to walk?" Arthritis, paralysis, muscle wasting, MS, Parkinson's, a broken bone, an amputated foot... some are temporary, some are permanent.

Walking is hard, even though most of us can do it. Forming memories is similarly hard.