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... for a summary
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.
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.
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.
>> 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.
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.
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).
> "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.
Scoville was overambitious and underinformed, but it's also important to remember that HM was living with debilitating seizures that made daily life almost unbearable. And for context, this is the era in which Walter Freeman was perfecting frontal lobotomy techniques that eventually left tens of thousands of individuals with gross cognitive impairments. At least Scoville had the sense to realize what he'd done and stop.
“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.
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.
No it wasn't the end result he was going for. But to say that the patient was wronged because of it is a grave injustice to the doctor who worked hard to get it right. Firstly, the patient must have been described the possible risks. Even back then, we knew that messing with the brain could screw up a lot. Secondly, it is tough to ascertain whether his life would have been any better with the pain of those seizures. His ability to live a normal life was already impaired.
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.
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.
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 ..."
28 comments
[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 63.8 ms ] threadThe notes from his diary are particularly frightening.
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Wearing
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.
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.
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.
Meanwhile, retrograde amnesia is a very popular trope.
also Ghajini: the Bollywood remake. I know it shouldn't count but this movie BLEW UP in the box office.
For another example, while it's not central to the story, Finding Nemo features a supporting character who has anterograde amnesia (Dory the fish).
This is horrifying on an extremely deep and unsettling level. It's easy to forget how recently "medicine" was just another name for barbarism.
“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.
Sometimes people are just assholes.
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.
[1] http://www.esquire.com/print-this/henry-molaison-brain-1110?...