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The Unforgettable Amnesiac

Posted by kdawson on from the every-20-seconds-a-new-day dept.

jamie found an account in the NYTimes of the life and death of one of the most important figures in modern neuroscience, Henry Gustav Molaison — a man who could not form memories. Molaison became an amnesiac after a brain operation in 1953. Known worldwide as H.M., Molaison was studied intensively for 55 years. Dr. Brenda Milner, a psychologist from Montreal, was the first researcher to visit Molaison. In 1962 she authored a landmark study demonstrating that a part of Molaison's memory was fully intact. "The implications were enormous. Scientists saw that there were at least two systems in the brain for creating new memories. One, known as declarative memory, records names, faces and new experiences and stores them until they are consciously retrieved. ... Another system, commonly known as motor learning, is subconscious and depends on other brain systems. This explains why people can jump on a bike after years away from one and take the thing for a ride, or why they can pick up a guitar that they have not played in years and still remember how to strum it. Soon 'everyone wanted an amnesic to study,' Dr. Milner said..."

15 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. What was I going to post? by isBandGeek() · · Score: 4, Funny

    I forgot.

    1. Re:What was I going to post? by FooAtWFU · · Score: 4, Funny

      See? Your motor-memory posting skills are obviously intact!

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    2. Re:What was I going to post? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      You forgot to mispell it in the link ;)

  2. thanks for the memories by jollyreaper · · Score: 4, Funny

    So when we see this article duped next week, now we'll know why?

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    1. Re:thanks for the memories by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 4, Funny

      Where were you last week? This is the dupe.

  3. Authored???? by duncan+bayne · · Score: 2, Funny

    Verbing weirds language :-(

  4. Hmm... by Konster · · Score: 3, Funny

    Looking down from Heaven, Gustav Molaison was surprised to learn people remembered him.

  5. Re:Offered his brain for further scientific study by Korbeau · · Score: 2, Funny

    You only have to get his signature on some paper ONCE ;)

  6. Re:I believe this was part of the inspiration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...and 50 First Dates.

  7. Re:I believe this was part of the inspiration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    ...and Jaws

  8. Re:I believe this was part of the inspiration by pushing-robot · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just when you thought it was safe to form new memories...

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    How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
  9. Re:I believe this was part of the inspiration by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 2, Funny

    Even funnier that only one of them was at all memorable.

  10. Re:Interesting case by Ihmhi · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...and his wife has of course visibly aged, he's not surprised by her current appearance.

    Well of course not, he hasn't seen her in years!

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  11. Re:I believe this was part of the inspiration by tehcyder · · Score: 2, Funny

    Which one was that?

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  12. Re:Offered his brain for further scientific study by tehcyder · · Score: 2, Funny

    How else do you think that research on children, or with people with Autism is able to get conducted?

    Evil Mad Nazi Scientists?

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    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it