What is the difference between retrograde and anterograde amnesia?

What is the difference between retrograde and anterograde amnesia?

Anterograde amnesia: A problem in encoding, storing or retrieving information that can be used in the future.

Retrograde amnesia: A problem accessing events that happened in the past.

As two good examples of people who suffer amnesia we could take Jimmy.G and the famous Clive Wearing. Jimmy G. suffers from Korsakoff's syndrome- a condition caused by a prolonged deficiency of vitamin B1, which is usually a result of a chronic alcoholism. It turns out that the damage to his memory has resulted in both types of amnesia mentioned above. He suffers from the anterograde amnesia (the loss of the ability to assimilate or retain new knowledge) and the retrograde amnesia (the loss of memory for events that have happened in the past). It is impotant to note that he has difficulty recognizing people he has just met, solve problems etc. (anterograde amnesia) but also is unable to remember things from his past, just like the mentioned above Clive Wearing (retrograde amnesia).

The basic difference between retrograde and anterograde amnesia:

Retrograde amnesia - when one does not have memories from before the accident causing amnesia

Anterograde - not being able to store new memories