008 Good Luck Have Fun
This is because most of what you learn from practice is based on implicit learning, which is a different type of memory that depends on different neural processes than our normal conscious memory for facts and events. When we think of “memory,” we generally think about memory for events or facts. Or we think about memory failures like, “Who was that Zerg player who expanded to Innovation’s natural the other day and then got pwned hard?” You watched it, remember seeing Innovation getting knocked around early but then somehow miraculously stay even on supply before turning it around and do the Innovationcrush thing—but the Zerg player’s name is somehow not coming to mind (it was Savage). That kind of explicit memory depends on a brain system that is built around the medial temporal lobe (including a structure
known as the hippocampus). Damage to this system causes the neurological amnesia that is seen in Alzheimer’s disease and can occur after a heart attack or stroke. This memory deficit is not the kind of “amnesia” popular on the soap operas where somebody gets hit on the head and forgets who they are—that doesn’t actually occur neurologically. After brain damage to the medial temporal lobe memory system, patients remember events from long ago just fine, but they can no longer learn new things (people, events, facts). If you are looking for a popular media description of real-world amnesia, the movies Memento and Fifty First Dates are good examples. New information just doesn’t get in, or only gets in occasionally if the memory deficit is mild. Learning from practice does not depend on explicit memory. In fact, patients with severe memory deficits still get better from