system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why is it that when someone suffers from amnesia, they forget specific things or completely who they are but not how to act as a human and complete basic tasks like eating and talking?
gpt
Different memories are stored in differing parts of the brain, with differing degrees of permanence.

If the amnesia affects only one part of the brain, then memories stored elsewhere are unaffected. In fact, when trauma happens to the language centers of the brain, a person can "forget" how to speak and understand speech properly, yet be fully cognizant of how to cook meals or what house they live in.

For obvious reasons, the brain stores its most essential memories - like how to eat, what is edible, what causes pain - in the most protected sections of the brain. Both short-term memory (what card did you just pick?) and medium-term memory (What year is it?) are more volatile.