People with Brain Damage Leading to Autobiographical Episodic Memory Loss Can Still Empathize with Other's Emotions, Study Shows

Science for a long time has theorized that people cannot sense another person's feelings, intentions, or sarcasms without first recollecting their own personal experiences. A new study conducted by the Rotman Research Institute at the Baycrest Centre for Aging and the Faculty of Health at York University's Department of Psychology has just demonstrated that individuals with brain can actually perceive other people's feelings and intentions, even if they don't have personal memories.

Individuals with severe autobiographical episodic memory loss are not able to remember their own history with reference to events, times, places, and even the emotions they felt during events. The new study has helped to show that people with severe autobiographical episodic memory loss are actually able to understand other people's feelings and intentions, even if they can't remember their own past feelings and responses.

While losing your autobiographical memory can be a strain on one's relationships, the study provides hope that while a person can't really remember their relation to another person, they can still understand the other person's feelings and intentions, which can help to maintain the relationship.

Science has dubbed the ability to be able to recognize another person's feelings, intentions, beliefs, and ability to lie and pretend as "Theory of Mind." "Theory of Mind" says that a person is able to understand another person's mental states as something that causes their behavior. It also says that this ability allows us to predict another person's behavior. "Theory of Mind" is what allows people to interact with each other and sets us apart from other animals. Scientists have believed for some time that people cannot make sense of other people's thoughts without first having functioning episodic memory. However, other scientists have wondered if these abilities can function separately from episodic memory.

The abilities described in "Theory of Mind" take place in the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is the front part of the frontal lobe of the brain.