

The Man Who Forgot Everything - co_pl_te
http://newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/10/henry-gustav-molaison-the-man-who-forgot-everything.html

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bfell
This part made me sad

“My interest in Henry had always been primarily intellectual; how else would I
explain why I had stood on a chair in the basement of Mass. General, ecstatic
to see his brain removed expertly from his skull? My role as a scientist had
always been perfectly clear to me.” This was no time for sentiment or
reflection.

How terrible that a man who had been so wronged by "science" had a caretaker
that viewed him more as an intellectual pursuit than a person who had just
passed without anyone by his side that truly loved him. While I understand the
remarkable learning that came about as a result of this man volunteering his
life to science, you would hope that there is another part of the story that
wasn't written about the people around him that truly mourned his passing.

~~~
jotm
Well, he was dead so he didn't care anymore...

~~~
bfell
I guess you could argue after a few hours he wouldn't care any more either
because he didn't remember it. I was hoping that ultimately he wasn't just a
science experiment to the people that surrounded him and that he was treated
accordingly.

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the_cat_kittles
Reminds me of an incredible story about jazz guitarist Pat Martino. The gist
is, he was a brilliant jazz guitarist who had a brain aneurism and lost
virtually all of his long term memory, including how to play the guitar. He
spent several years after this relearning everything, from old recordings and
stories from other people. Eventually, he was able to regain his stature and
virtuosity! He is a really amazing person, and I'm suprised so few people have
heard his story. See
[http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=29896#.UmL6vZ...](http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=29896#.UmL6vZS8A0w)
for a summary

~~~
fuzzix
There's the case of Clive Wearing[0], who suffers anterograde and retrograde
amnesia. In effect, he has a 30 second memory.

The notes from his diary are particularly frightening.

[0]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Wearing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Wearing)

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bhaumik
>> In the less cinematically attractive “anterograde amnesia”

Disagree. I find Memento to be the most successful film related to memory
loss. Maybe I'm just biased because it's in my top 5 but its 2 Oscar
nominations and #34 ranking on IMDB don't hurt. HIGHLY recommend this film to
anyone fascinated by this story.

EDIT: finished the piece, author [briefly] references Memento

>> he put notes in his wallet telling him that his father was dead and that
his mother was in a nursing home

Have studied this guy in the past but every time I read this, it's
heartbreaking

>> Columbia Pictures is planning a movie from Corkin’s point of view.

I reaally hope they don't romanticize the relationship between Corkin and HM.
It's fascinating as is.

~~~
eridius
Memento may be hugely successful, but can you think of _any_ other examples of
cinematic success with anterograde amnesia? Or even attempts at depicting it?

Meanwhile, retrograde amnesia is a very popular trope.

~~~
dewarrn1
Anterograde amnesia is definitely a greater challenge for a storyteller than
retrograde amnesia because the amnesic character is essentially static in the
story, and that's one of the reasons that Memento is such an extraordinary
film.

For another example, while it's not central to the story, Finding Nemo
features a supporting character who has anterograde amnesia (Dory the fish).

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bumbledraven
A much better article is "The Brain That Changed Everything" [1], by the
grandson of the surgeon who erased H.M.'s memory. It has lots of details that
I've never seen anywhere else.

    
    
      There was one TV series he loved to watch, too. A sitcom. All in the Family.
      It is a show, essentially, about a man who is mystified by a world and culture
      and family that change all around him while he remains the same, a man who
      digs in his heels, who holds on to the past, refusing to be dragged into the
      present.
    

The part that gets me the most is when they wake H.M. up and ask him what he
was dreaming about (at this point no one even knew if he DID dream), and he
says "what I could have been ..."

[1] [http://www.esquire.com/print-this/henry-molaison-
brain-1110?...](http://www.esquire.com/print-this/henry-molaison-
brain-1110?page=all#)

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Tossrock
> "On August 25, 1953, with a cheap jury-rigged hand drill, Scoville carved
> two holes in Molaison’s skull, one just above each of his eyes. Molaison was
> given only a local anesthetic, so that he could be awake to report on his
> sensations when different cerebral areas were stimulated. Scoville lifted up
> Molaison’s frontal lobes with a spatula and reached far into the center of
> his brain. Then, using a silver straw, Scoville sucked out fist-size chunks
> of the medial temporal lobes on both sides of Molaison’s brain. The excised
> tissue included most of the sea-horse-shaped structure called the
> hippocampus, as well as the parahippocampal gyrus, the uncus, the anterior
> temporal cortex, and the almond-shaped amygdala."

This is horrifying on an extremely deep and unsettling level. It's easy to
forget how recently "medicine" was just another name for barbarism.

~~~
bhaumik
shuddered at the mental imagery of "sucking" brain chunks with a straw. Hello,
Fear Factor.

~~~
gknoy
I pretty much held my head and mouthed swear words silently while being unable
to stop reading that horrible passage.

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itchitawa
I don't like this kind of nonsense arrogance: "In a period when eugenic
theories still circulated, Molaison’s doctors reportedly told him that he
shouldn’t have sex, since he would likely reproduce children who were
similarly damaged." We're still in that period and it's probably a good thing.
In America you can still go to prison for having sex when there's a high risk
of passing on genetic problems to your possible children, specifically by both
partners being close relatives.

~~~
thelukester
I think it’s marvelous when our society takes care of our existing mentally
and physically ill. But encouraging those with major genetic problems to
reproduce is asinine. A close friend of mine is very religious, over 40, chose
to have a 3rd child, chose not to have the doctor recommended amniocentesis
test, and had a child born with Down syndrome. In the end, the medical bills
and stress on the relations wrecked their family.

The kids a sweetheart and occasionally has happy moments, but I am sure there
is absolutely no way I would want to be born under his circumstances. Until
we’ve reached a stage where we can correct genetic defects after the fact,
there is nothing wrong with warning people about the risks their DNA may carry
on to their children.

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dewarrn1
Those of us who study the cognitive neuroscience of memory have been waiting
for Dr. Corkin to publish this book for a while. I'm looking forward to
reading through.

Regarding another commenter's concerns about ensuring that severely amnesic
patients are fairly compensated and participating of their own free will, this
is a complex issue that those of us who study such patients deal with
frequently. I can say of my own experience that patients we work with
volunteer their time willingly, are remunerated for their participation, and
can discontinue any task at any time. It's a privilege to work with people who
have such a focal neuropsychologial deficit, and we take our responsibility
for each patient's welfare during their time with us very seriously.

~~~
bhaumik
Agreed. I haven't studied in nearly the magnitude of depth as you have but as
a Cognitive Science major, I've always been fascinated in his story.

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hristov
I hope the scientists did not take advantage of him and paid him for all the
experiments they performed on him.

This also shows something that athletes have known for a long time: there is a
"muscle memory" that is quite distinct from our conscious memory and that
muscle memory can help us perform tasks with great precision, as long as we
practice.

~~~
eridius
I don't think the surprise was that there exists such a thing as "muscle
memory". The surprising fact was that the mechanism of creating and storing
muscle memory differs enough from the mechanism of creating and storing normal
long-term (or even recent) memory that it ends up in a different part of the
brain.

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tingletech
UCSD Brain Observertory sliced and imaged his brain
[http://thebrainobservatory.ucsd.edu/hm](http://thebrainobservatory.ucsd.edu/hm)

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pvinis
well, i will read this later. for now, i'm just gonna say, awesome username!

