What type of memory impairment commonly affects individuals after certain traumatic brain injuries?

Post-traumatic amnesia is a type of memory impairment that often occurs following traumatic brain injuries. This condition specifically refers to periods of confusion and memory loss that happen after the injury, affecting the individual's ability to form new memories or retrieve existing ones during the recovery phase. It can be characterized by a gap in memory that can last from minutes to days, depending on the severity of the brain injury.

This type of impairment highlights the brain's susceptibility to damage and its impact on the cognitive processes related to memory. The disruption can affect both short-term memory and the ability to consolidate new information into long-term memory during the period immediately following the trauma.

In contrast, anterograde amnesia involves difficulty in forming new memories after a specific event, typically due to damage to the areas of the brain associated with memory creation, while infantile amnesia reflects the phenomenon of not remembering events from early childhood. Semantic memory loss refers to the inability to recall facts and general knowledge, which is distinctly different from the memory disruptions seen immediately after a trauma. Therefore, the identification of post-traumatic amnesia as the correct type of memory impairment after brain injuries is accurate.