Neuro psychological question.

While undergoing speech-therapy, I was getting ready to leave for the day when the neuro-psycologist asked me out of the blue who was the president of the United States. I immediately answered president Obama. He the asked me who was the president before Obama. When he asked that question my mind went totally blank and I have never had such a confused feeling in my head. I could not think of the name of any other president for several seconds and finally the only name I could think of was president Ford which was obviously wrong. The psychologist asked these questions to see what kind of response I had. Another time my speech therapist asked me also out of the blue who drove me there. My mind again became confused and I felt embarrassed. I lied and gave her the first name that came to my mind. Has anyone else had such an experience. If so let me know. Also do any medical members know about such questions. I did have some brain trama after an accident which is why I was taking the speech therapy.

I believe asking questions similar to those that you mentioned is fairly standard procedure when some type of neurological problem is suspected. For me personally, I had such a neurological event this last summer, although for privacy reasons, I won't go into the details here. I *seem* to be fine now. But I do know that when I was being evaluated, one of the questions I was asked was "who is the president". They're simply trying to determine the extent of any memory loss and gauge whether it's recent memory, long term memory, something in between, etc.

The problem I had was more the physical feeling from the question. After my mind cleared I could have named the vast majority of the presidents so I don't think that my memory was the problem. When I first started the speech therapy, I couldn't remember three words for more than two minutes. By the time of the question I could remember the words for several weeks and some I can still remember after several months. I still have some brain stem damage which affects some walking and motor skills.