• Question: Does post-traumatic stress cause memory loss?

    Asked by anon-188124 to Pizza Ka Yee, Paul, Nadine, Alex on 14 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Alex Reid

      Alex Reid answered on 14 Nov 2018:

      Hi CrunchyCurry, in my limited understanding of the area my answer to your question is: yes. PTSD has been shown to disrupt the function of areas important to memory, such as the hippocampus (a tiny structure in the middle of the head) and the prefrontal cortex (towards the front of your brain). These regions are responsible for both short and long term memory, so disruption to these structures can cause memory loss (both gaining new memories and recalling old ones). I don’t know enough about this area to tell you how this might happen though (i.e. what PTSD does to damage these structures), maybe some of the other psychologists can help 🙂

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