post-traumatic retrograde amnesia . [ plot set to occur in october ] .. orioleplight will be out in loner territory, wandering along the mountainous terrain, with clouds looming threateningly above her head. she will notice them gathering and begin to try and head home, and then will be caught in the pouring rain. the rocks will quickly turn slippery, and, in her haste to get home, she will lose her footing and fall in a flooded river. she will hit her head on a rock and stay underwater long enough to reduce the oxygen to her brain. she will wash up on skyclan territory, unconscious, and be brought back by __. she will have lost her memory and be very confused, slowly becoming part of skyclan as time goes on. only lilytune seems to know something is up. slowly, she'll get her memory back in small pieces upon encountering things familiar to her. WHAT IT IS . .. post-traumatic amnesia is a condition you develop after an injury, and it can evolve into various other types. it usually affects the hippocampus / medial temporal lobe. retrograde amnesia is a type of memory loss in which the person loses their memories, including facts and past experiences. they are still able to make new memories, as opposed to anterograde amnesia. people with amnesia may also experience something called confabulation, which is when the mind automatically tries to fill in details from your memory and make a mistake, which can lead to misremembering the past or recent events. they genuinely believe that their memory is accurate, and it happens without them being aware. amnesia can come from various neurological causes, such as cerebral hypoxia, concussions, or infections, as well as psychological ones like PTSD and dissociative disorders. there's no way to treat amnesia. instead, the underlying condition is to be treated. oftentimes, the brain is capable of recovering on its own, but it takes time. those who have amnesia start out disoriented early on, and are very confused-- they usually don't remember the experience that caused it. though anterograde amnesia can be permanent, retrograde amnesia is usually not, though it depends on the severity. amnesia rarely affects motor skills. when someone learns how to do things like swim or walk, it is stored in a separate part of the brain, which is unaffected by the condition. the individual's personality and behavior is also stored in a different area. familiar scents/smells can cause the individual to feel like they've been brought back to the memory, being able to remember after the brief flash. this can also leads the individual to be afraid, disoriented confused, and cautious of others. HOW IT WILL AFFECT ORIOLE . - upon waking up, she will have a headache from hitting her head, feel relatively dizzy, and may be sensitive to bright light / loud sounds. - she will not remember her suffix, clan, family, or former life. [ she will know her prefix because she's had it all her life, whereas she's only had her suffix since she became a warrior ~13 moons into her life ] - ori will still know how to hunt, fight, communicate, etc. because these are procedural [ skill-based ] memories. - she will slowly get parts of her memory back through brief flashes triggered by familiar scents, places, or cats. early kithood memories may come back sooner than others. - orioleplight will feel confused, frightened, or anxious when surrounded by unfamiliar cats. though her personality will mostly stay the same, she would be more cautious and withdrawn due to this. - upon being brought to skyclan camp, due to the confabulation, she will assume she has lived there practically her whole life. her brain will fill in gaps. - she is going to develop rather strong bonds with the clan that rescues her, skyclan, believing it is her home. however, the fact that her body is used to being nocturnal but skyclan is sleeping then will cause her to feel rather strange adjusting for the first moon or so. SOURCES . https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21455-amnesia https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/amnesia/symptoms-causes/syc-20353360 https://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/neurologic-disorders/function-and-dysfunction-of-the-cerebral-lobes/amnesias https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15215216/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11868193/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16893270/
