We’ll remember you. | MetaFilter
H.M. a famous memory-impaired patient, died day before yesterday. If you haven’t heard of him, he was probably one of the most studied patients and a key role in studies and theories on memory. (Or more popularly, was probably the original inspiration behind Memento). The poor guy, who had part of his hippocampus and surrounding regions removed to treat epilepsy, after the surgury could never form any new long term memories. He only had his short term memory, which lasts a max of maybe 15 minutes if you concentrate. (Just like Memento, once you are distracted you forget what you were just doing.)
Fortunate for neuroscience and psychology* that he had such a specific area damaged and was willing to aid research with countless experimenters- he was easily part of some of the most influential studies and theories about the different types of memory. Unfortunate for him though- if they had known in the 1950’s that the operation would leave him with permanent anterograde anmesia, I think he would have preferred to have seizures.
I always felt a bit bad for him. He had his surgery when he was 27- so he was forever waking up and discovering he had aged into a middle aged man, and later an old man. He would be endlessly rediscovering his condition, never really being able to come to terms with what had happened to him. That it was no longer the 1950’s. Always be meeting people for the first time, no matter how many times they had met before.
