Amnesia – When the Brain Suddenly Goes on Strike

Science 52' 2024 HD

Neurologist Magnus Heier was paddling on a lake in Finland when his memory suddenly stopped working for eight hours. Everything he said or did was forgotten a few seconds later. He experienced what is known as “transient global amnesia”, or TGA for short. A condition where the brain stops recording experiences for up to 24 hours. 

For the neurologist and first-person narrator Magnus Heier, the incident becomes the starting point for an expedition into the world of memory. Why did his memory fail so suddenly? How does remembering and forgetting actually work under normal circumstances? And why are the lost hours still haunting him today?

His journey takes the doctor back to Finland, across Germany and all the way to Italy. Along the way, he visits researchers who have unlocked some of the secrets of our memory. He meets a man who remembers every day of his life and someone who has lost all his memories. Magnus Heier lies down in an MRI scanner, sleeps with electrodes on his head and teaches flying. It gradually becomes clear that our memory is much more than just storage but rather the foundation of our identity. If it fails, only a shadow of ourselves remains. 

The documentary is an elaborately shot science road movie about human memory that lets the viewer look deep into the brain. The neurologist Magnus Heier transforms abstract neuroscience into a personal, light-footed film.