Anterograde amnesia is a disorder in which the patient is unable to produce new memories following the incident that caused the amnesia. While long-term memories from prior to the incident may remain, the person has difficulty recalling the immediate past. Diagnosis of anterograde amnesia is performed using a variety of tests, from imaging scans (such as MRI or CT) to blood tests (to detect whether there is infection, nutrient deficiencies) to electroencephalogram for detecting seizure activity. Physical exams (checking reflexes of the patient, sensory function) and cognitive tests are also performed, in which the patient’s short-term and long-term memory is checked. The memory evaluation is critical in determining the type of amnesia that the patient has suffered (Mayo Clinic, 2018). In the film 50 First Dates, the character of Lucy Whitmore played by Drew Barrymore suffers from what is essentially anterograde amnesia, though in the film it is given the fictitious name of Goldfield’s Syndrome. As the result of a boating accident, Lucy is unable to recall short-term memories and after going to sleep every night she wakes it believing it is still the day of the boating accident when she lost her ability to form new memories. The film takes some liberties with the amnesia symptoms and the way in which it displays itself, and the general concept is exploited for cinematic and plot purposes as the driver of the action of the romantic comedy. Nonetheless, 50 First Dates does represent anterograde amnesia sufficiently well enough that similarities between the real disorder and that depicted in the film can be identified. While the causes of anterograde amnesia are typically related to drug use (such as benzodiazepine) or surgery (in which a portion of the brain responsible for memory formation is removed for emergency purposes), traumatic brain injury (TBI) and even emotional trauma can also be a cause for...

In 50 First Dates, Lucy’s boating accident is responsible for her suffering a TBI and an emotional trauma, and thus the film accurately reflects the manner in which anterograde amnesia may be caused.
However, unlike in the film, anterograde amnesia is not something that “resets” at the end of each day, as is depicted in the film. Lucy’s amnesia is more of a cinematic conceit in this manner than it is a reflection of the symptoms of anterograde amnesia in real life. In real life, this form of amnesia is not expressed according to the time of day or with such clear cut rules. For example, Lucy wakes up believing that every day it is the day of the boating trip and her family plays along with this because in the past when they have told her the truth she has gotten upset as the truth triggers the painful realization that she has amnesia and is a burden on everyone—but then all of this is forgotten when she goes to sleep at the end of the day.

For example, Dewar, Sala, Beschin and Cowan (2010) show that some anterograde amnesia patients “have the capacity to retain new material for much longer than usual but that any new post-learning information profoundly interferes with such retention”—which means that so long as new information is not introduced to the patient in a way that it cancels out the previously learned information, the amnesiac can retain new memories for quite a while (p. 357). Indeed, minimizing the interference objects for a patient can actually help to boost short-term memory for days on end: Alber, Sala and Dewar (2014) found that “a short wakeful rest could boost memory retention in amnesic patients over a much longer period” (p. 667)—which is exactly the opposite of what is portrayed in the…