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heresacorrection t1_jas3i1z wrote

Does being sick reduce your ability to form memories and remember? Yes https://www.jwatch.org/jp199906010000009/1999/06/01/does-fever-affect-memory

Confirmed in rats: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2630971/

Is amnesia (completing forgetting events) associated with being sick? I would say very rarely - since the only documented cases I could find were mainly in the elderly where the infections cause significant brain damage. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14589627/

EDIT: found a case in a younger person - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3766455/ so yes it could happen but is clearly so rare that doctors can publish a paper when it occurs

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ArchMob t1_jasr1v7 wrote

The immune response to an infection can cause inflammation in the brain, which can affect the functioning of the hippocampus, a brain region involved in memory formation. In addition, certain types of infections can directly affect the brain and cause cognitive impairment.

Research has shown that acute illness, such as a viral infection, can lead to temporary memory impairment. For example, one study found that people with a cold or flu had poorer cognitive performance than healthy individuals, including poorer working memory and processing speed

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mschuster91 t1_jat12ky wrote

Replying to heresacorrection (#2,152,883)

Covid has been linked to severe memory degradation (https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2022-01-19-attention-and-memory-deficits-persist-months-after-recovery-mild-covid).

Anecdata: was out sick for two weeks, can barely remember anything from that time. Friend was out sick for months and struggled with massive memory issues for even longer.

We barely have an idea how viral infections affect the human body, and we're only now after covid beginning to take the significant toll that post-viral infections can have seriously. The ME/CFS / EBV link goes into a similar direction and I would not be surprised if recent research linking Alzheimer, Parkinson and ALS to viral infections (https://www.science.org/content/article/study-links-viral-infections-alzheimer-s-parkinson-s-many-caveats) gets onto a more significant foundation as well.

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Dyanpanda t1_jatbngr wrote

The way memory works in the brain is heavily state dependent. That means that your recall and recognition of past ideas/events is based on how you feel, what you are wearing, mental state, drunkenness, drugged/not, sleepiness, and pretty much any other state of being you can think of. The closer you are to the state that you were when you learned or experienced something, the easier it will be to recall.

This doesn't un-do the depreciation in memory you get from drinking, or anything else. Getting black out drunk wont help you get your blackout memories back, you'll just forget what you were trying to do.

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Ieatadapoopoo t1_jatk910 wrote

Replying to mschuster91 (#2,154,354)

Brain fog to an extreme degree for many, many months after being sick when I never had any previously, only cropping up after I caught Covid. It feels like such a clear link. I sincerely hope the silver lining here is that it helps propel our understanding of this topic.

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JackTR314 t1_jatyoun wrote

Replying to Ieatadapoopoo (#2,155,174)

I can try to find the study for you, but they infected brain organoids with covid, and then found hyper active immune cells, causing significantly fewer neuron synapses.

Basically a type of immune cells that normally cleaves axons and synapses as part of healthy function became over active. The reduced synapses were hypothesized to be a potential cause of the brain fog post covid.

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Midweek_Sunrise t1_jaua088 wrote

As a memory researcher, my two cents is that being sick likely leads you to have fewer distinctive episodic memories encoded during the time you are sick because you are mostly staying in the same place (e.g., your bed) and enduring the same discomforting symptoms for a few days. So what you lay down is a schematic type of memory that kind of encompasses the whole period you are sick, but individual episodes within that period of, say, 2-6 days, are likely to be sensitive to rapid decay as they lack distinctive traces to support their reintegration when later you try to remember them.

Another element to consider is the fact that all memory is reconstructive, so we never remember a past episode exactly as it was encoded. Our current thoughts, feelings, and motivations color how we perceive past episodes. Given that sickness is generally undesirable, when we are not sick, we probably don't have the motivation to reconstruct memories of the time we were sick.

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DetchiOsvos t1_jauhpeh wrote

Most difficult thing (for me) about open heart surgery...

Sawing open the chest? No, horrible and rough, but around a year the body heals.

The initial pain? Again, really horrible, but you get past it.

Forgetting words and phrases you've learned throughout your life? Yeah, this sucks. It's like someones wiped a partition in the headspace, and that stuff is lost. That sucks

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time2fly2124 t1_jaurjxj wrote

Replying to Mrshaydee (#2,156,916)

Probably a good thing you don't remember it. I remember alot of when I has covid, specifically that my body was was in pain for about a week until my room mate, who had lesser symptoms than me said "maybe you should go to a hospital". The whole time I also had these incredibly strange dreams that I was flying around new york city for some reason... also about a week after the hospital visit I had to drive (in a stick shift no less) and pick up 3 boxes of honey bees for my very first season, and I definitely remember thinking I should not be driving, but I had to. Miraculous that I didn't hit anyone or run any red-lights.. that I know of.

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jraad86 t1_javen1g wrote

Replying to mschuster91 (#2,154,354)

Covid brain fog was wild. Never experienced something like that before. I didn’t get very sick at all, extremely mild. But my brain was just mush. Forgetting if I’d done everyday tasks, re-doing things I had already done.

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MLGTryHard4Gold t1_javhmxs wrote

Replying to Squirrel_Grip23 (#2,155,078)

There’s no conclusive sum of factors though a big one is the Amygdala overactivation (and, if relevant, it’s growth in comparison to other parts during the onset of symptoms) causing difficulties with encoding, storing, and causing behaviors that worsen recall (and whatever affects recall is usually actively affecting the other two components of memory as well). The Amygdala in this situation, in comparison to the sick brain, is what is causing the memory defecit- as opposed to a random assortment of possibly damaged neurological components, that could include the amygdala (which is to say being sick can make neurons, parts of the frontal lobe, the back area of the brain responsible for vision, or all of them become damaged in some way, for example) and while the effects may be the same, PTSD may have been a risk factor for or an effect of receiving the brain injuries associated with a virus more times than not

Just to further elaborate, PTSD is a mental illness (though it’s common coupling with brain injuries is something if interest), whilst memory degradation from viruses, specifically from COVID, seems to be from either inappropriate immune system activation or neurological (like described above)/systemic damage (think possible gut biome or other body damage that may make it harder for you to do anything that was easier pre-COVID, like joint aches for example)

(for those reading whom are struggling with PTSD, please remember that it is a normal reaction to abnormal circumstances)

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Suitable_Success_243 t1_javonm9 wrote

Replying to JackTR314 (#2,155,806)

ADHD has also been associated with an overactive immune system and chronic inflammation. Many ADHD patients also suffer from asthma, allergies and auto-immune disorders.

Also, this is why vaccines are important. Natural exposure provides immunity but at the cost of inflammation and damage to the body.

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moonflower_C16H17N3O t1_jazn9st wrote

Replying to Ieatadapoopoo (#2,155,174)

That would be great. I've got permanent brain fog. I wish I could take something that would help my brain repair itself. It's ridiculous how bad my recent memories are compared to my old ones. Also I have to try to work like a human thesaurus because very frequently I'll forget words and have to reach for a replacement.

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MLGTryHard4Gold t1_jb0acji wrote

Replying to Queasy-Bite-7514 (#2,158,163)

So the good news is that it’s not what I said, eh?

Whilst I can be sure that I can’t say with absolute certainty that the amygdala is the only thing involved, those other parts being affected would definitely not help with the picking of what to encode or store at the least

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