Is post-concert amnesia real? Here's what to know

Have you ever attended a much anticipated concert, but couldn’t remember parts of the performance? You may have experienced “post-concert amnesia.”

This experience was especially prevalent among those that attended Taylor Swift’s “The Era’s Tour” concert. Many Swifties reported an inability to remember much of the concert for days or weeks to come.

According to David Clewett, assistant professor of psychology at UCLA, the phenomenon is real.

“What we often see under these really exciting or mentally stimulating experiences, such as a Taylor Swift concert, is that memory actually becomes much more pickier and selective,” Clewett said.

Under a stressful situation, brains release norepinephrine, which is also known as noradrenaline, according to the Cleveland Clinic. The hormone plays an important role in the body’s “fight-or-flight” response. It is also responsible for regulating arousal, attention and stress reaction in the body.

When the brain experiences an increase in norepinephrine, it pays special attention to specific details, but drowns out less important details.

“Everything is competing for this foothold in your awareness and you can’t remember everything, so people are very likely to remember specific things really well, but often, at the expense of remembering other things and that can create this sense of forgetting,” Clewett said.

Many people, especially Swifties, will be happy to hear “post-concert amnesia” doesn’t last forever.

Clewett said it is likely those memories are inaccessible temporarily, but still available in the long-term.

“What we often find is the memories are stored for the long-term, but, what often happens is they lay dormant until you have the right reminder or retrieval cue that can reawaken those memories.”

To help jog those memories, experts recommend listening to songs performed at the concert.