An athlete who can't remember events before a concussion is suffering from which condition?

The condition described, where an athlete cannot recall events that occurred before a concussion, indicates retrograde amnesia. Retrograde amnesia specifically involves the loss of pre-existing memories, and it often arises after a traumatic event, such as a concussion, which can disrupt the neural processes involved in memory storage and retrieval. This type of amnesia can affect varying lengths of time, depending on the severity of the injury and which brain functions are impacted.

In contrast, anterograde amnesia would suggest difficulty in forming new memories after the injury, rather than losing memories that were formed before it. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) involves anxiety and flashbacks following trauma but does not specifically relate to memory loss regarding prior events in the way retrograde amnesia does. Short-term memory loss focuses more on the immediate recall of information rather than extensive gaps in memory that span from before an event.