Towards a Neural Network Hypothesis for Functional (Dissociative) Amnesia: Catastrophic Forgetting

Functional amnesia, also known as dissociative psychogenic or mnestic block syndrome, is a rare disorder which, although clinically heterogeneous, most often characterised by dense retrograde amnesia mainly affecting the episodic-autobiographical domain but with relative preservation of anterograde memory function, pattern dissimilar to that seen in other amnesic disorders. The pathogenesis functional remains unknown. Here, appeal made study artificial neural networks hope that, disorders, this might give insight into mechanisms underpinning amnesia. Specifically, observation catastrophic forgetting interference occurring networks, abrupt and complete loss previously learned information when learning new information, extended human nervous system develop novel hypothesis: Catastrophic Forgetting Hypothesis