Symptom 7: Trouble Learning New Skills: The Halted Progress of Anterograde Amnesia
Learning new skills is an integral part of personal and professional growth. However, anterograde amnesia throws a wrench into this process. It impedes the person’s ability to acquire and retain new skills, making learning a much more significant challenge than it is for most people.
Imagine practicing a new activity, say painting or playing a musical instrument. You’re making progress, but the moment you stop, it’s as if you’ve never started. The learning curve resets every time, making it incredibly difficult to make any significant progress.
This struggle to acquire new skills isn’t because of a lack of intelligence or the complexity of the skill itself. Rather, it’s due to the interruption in the formation of new memories, which are crucial for learning. Without the ability to remember and build upon previous practice sessions, the learning process stalls. (7)
