My memory was damaged, quite a bit. It came back pretty funny. I lost my ability to read and write, but not because I couldn’t remember what letters were needed. My brain forgot how to interpret signals from my eyes. What I saw when I looked at lettering was garbled images, and difficult to describe. It explained for me some artist renderings of what they see.
After a few weeks I began to “see” block letters, recognizing some, and remembering how to put them together in words. I knew that C-A-T spelled cat, but it was a long process for my brain to go through; seeing images, sorting individual letters, comprehending their order, aligning the information with stored information regarding sound possibilities represented, etc. I still suffer some difficulties with reading. I get fruatrated and tired, and don’t last long.
The brain is mighty complex, and much more involved than micro images floating about in a soft, wet filing system.