5 ms·

H. M., an Unforgettable Amnesiac, Dies at 82

54 points by kalvin 18y ago

randomwalker 18y ago
This was a bit of an emotional moment for me. I'm not an amnesiac, but my memory is unusual, so I have a great interest in the research on the subject. I just registered http://henrymolaison.com http://henrymolaison.com . I'm using it to post links to new info. about the guy. Anyone want to help out? It's wordpress, so I can easily give you an account.
- tlrobinson 18y ago
  I'm curious how your memory is "ususual", if you want to share. Or not, that would be understandable.
  - randomwalker 18y ago
    Be happy to if you send me a private email.
jeroen 18y ago
If the title doesn't ring any bells (it didn't for me): ... He developed a syndrome neurologists call profound amnesia. ... As a participant in hundreds of studies, he helped scientists understand the biology of learning, memory and physical dexterity, as well as the fragile nature of human identity.
- robg 18y ago
  Also, H.M. is the main scientific basis for the movie Memento.
  - lacker 18y ago
    In fact Memento is pretty much the only movie that treats amnesia scientifically. In movies, when you get amnesia you forget who you are, but after that you are able to function normally. This almost never happens in the real world, and when it does it is usually psychological rather than a blow to the head. Even less realistic is getting all your memories restored after a second blow to the head. For more: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=535990 http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=53...
robg 18y ago
Thanks, Henry. We wouldn't be where we are today without you. You were an anonymous legend if there ever was one.
kalvin 18y ago
This is kind of like finding out who Deep Throat is-- H.M. is in every psych textbook but has never been named publicly. There are no (as far as I can tell) Google results for his name that predate his death. (! I would have said this was impossible...) http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls=en-us&q=%22Henry+Molaison%22&btnG=Search http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls...
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
- tlrobinson 18y ago
  Indeed, the Wikipedia page was updated to include his real name yesterday following the news of his death: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HM_ http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HM_(patient)&diff=255717057&oldid=255710373 (I'm not saying Wikipedia is an authoritative source, but it's a pretty good indicator)
tsally 18y ago
Cases like these make me wonder where Psychology is going to get a new round of groundbreaking case studies. All the major ones were done decades ago when ethical guidelines were far looser.
- byrneseyeview 18y ago
  Presumably, the studies will be done -- and the rewards reaped -- by people who don't care so much about ethics.
- mechanical_fish 18y ago
  Alas, so long as there are strokes, falling objects, cyclists (particularly the helmetless ones), football players, chronic drunkards, Alzheimer's patients, and wars -- i.e. most likely forever -- there will be brain damage. Many of the world's accident victims do not make such convenient test subjects as H.M., but there are more than enough of them for psychologists to get by. The situation is much improved by the existence of modern brain imaging. It's no longer necessary to cut out a hippocampus to demonstrate that it's required for long-term memory formation. Then there are other amazing tricks enabled by superior real-time imaging technology. I recall a study in which catheters were used to deliver anesthetics directly to individual hemispheres of people's brains.
  - tsally 18y ago
    Excellent point about the brain damage. What I was mostly thinking about was studies like the Stanford prison experiment. Studies that require volunteers to be put in unethical situations.
Eliezer 18y ago
A life of great importance to science. It wasn't just the idea of specialized memory, it was the idea of a specialized brain.
brandnewlow 18y ago
Reading this, I acknowledge that there's some measure of good that comes out of being able to advance our understanding of how the brain works. At the same time, the whole enterprise, a failed surgery leading to a life spent as a guinea pig, strikes me as very sad. How many of these scientists secretly thanked the heavens that this guy lost out on a normal life so they could further their own work? How was he able to give consent to all this research without the ability to form new memories? I think we need to keep studying the world and pushing along our understanding of it, I just hope we never stop asking these sorts of questions along the way to keep ourselves human.
- mechanical_fish 18y ago
  How was he able to give consent to all this research without the ability to form new memories? The same way any mentally-incapacitated patient consents to treatment: They or the courts appoint a relative or a guardian to hold medical power-of-attorney, and that person as well as the patient must consent to treatment. Meanwhile, I'm not about to defend the ethical standards of mid-20th-century brain surgeons, but I will point out that H.M.'s surgeon was hardly operating outside the norms of his time: H.M. had epilepsy, which is a pretty scary disease; understanding of the brain was really poor, and psychosurgery was all the rage. Far more awful things were done in the 1950s and earlier. If you ever want to experience the real-history equivalent of a vampire film, google up the wikipedia entry on Rosemary Kennedy (or, related: Walter Freeman and/or transorbital lobotomy). Warning: I had nightmares for a couple of weeks. Seriously.
  - palish 18y ago
    Yikes. As Dr. Watts cut, Dr. Freeman put questions to Rosemary. For example, he asked her to recite the Lord's Prayer or sing "God Bless America" or count backwards. ... "We made an estimate on how far to cut based on how she responded." ... When she began to become incoherent, they stopped. Talk about hard science.
  - brandnewlow 18y ago
    I don't know that I've got the fortitude to look into it just now. I once almost feinted at the wheel while listening to a truly horrifying NPR piece called "my lobotomy." http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5014080 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5014080 And yes, by all accounts this was a case of people making the best of a bizarre situation. And I truly do hope that tangible good comes out this research if it has not already, beyond simply "we got a little smarter" which I find unsatisfying personally.
jgrahamc 18y ago
One of those great stories about patients who had a profound effect on an area of medical science. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Lacks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Lacks

54 points by kalvin 18y ago

This was a bit of an emotional moment for me. I'm not an amnesiac, but my memory is unusual, so I have a great interest in the research on the subject. I just registered http://henrymolaison.com http://henrymolaison.com . I'm using it to post links to new info. about the guy. Anyone want to help out? It's wordpress, so I can easily give you an account.

tlrobinson 18y ago
I'm curious how your memory is "ususual", if you want to share. Or not, that would be understandable.
- randomwalker 18y ago
  Be happy to if you send me a private email.

jeroen 18y ago

If the title doesn't ring any bells (it didn't for me): ... He developed a syndrome neurologists call profound amnesia. ... As a participant in hundreds of studies, he helped scientists understand the biology of learning, memory and physical dexterity, as well as the fragile nature of human identity.

robg 18y ago
Also, H.M. is the main scientific basis for the movie Memento.
- lacker 18y ago
  In fact Memento is pretty much the only movie that treats amnesia scientifically. In movies, when you get amnesia you forget who you are, but after that you are able to function normally. This almost never happens in the real world, and when it does it is usually psychological rather than a blow to the head. Even less realistic is getting all your memories restored after a second blow to the head. For more: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=535990 http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=53...

robg 18y ago

Thanks, Henry. We wouldn't be where we are today without you. You were an anonymous legend if there ever was one.

kalvin 18y ago

This is kind of like finding out who Deep Throat is-- H.M. is in every psych textbook but has never been named publicly. There are no (as far as I can tell) Google results for his name that predate his death. (! I would have said this was impossible...) http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls=en-us&q=%22Henry+Molaison%22&btnG=Search http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls...

deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
tlrobinson 18y ago
Indeed, the Wikipedia page was updated to include his real name yesterday following the news of his death: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HM_ http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HM_(patient)&diff=255717057&oldid=255710373 (I'm not saying Wikipedia is an authoritative source, but it's a pretty good indicator)

tsally 18y ago

Cases like these make me wonder where Psychology is going to get a new round of groundbreaking case studies. All the major ones were done decades ago when ethical guidelines were far looser.

byrneseyeview 18y ago
Presumably, the studies will be done -- and the rewards reaped -- by people who don't care so much about ethics.
mechanical_fish 18y ago
Alas, so long as there are strokes, falling objects, cyclists (particularly the helmetless ones), football players, chronic drunkards, Alzheimer's patients, and wars -- i.e. most likely forever -- there will be brain damage. Many of the world's accident victims do not make such convenient test subjects as H.M., but there are more than enough of them for psychologists to get by. The situation is much improved by the existence of modern brain imaging. It's no longer necessary to cut out a hippocampus to demonstrate that it's required for long-term memory formation. Then there are other amazing tricks enabled by superior real-time imaging technology. I recall a study in which catheters were used to deliver anesthetics directly to individual hemispheres of people's brains.
- tsally 18y ago
  Excellent point about the brain damage. What I was mostly thinking about was studies like the Stanford prison experiment. Studies that require volunteers to be put in unethical situations.

Eliezer 18y ago

A life of great importance to science. It wasn't just the idea of specialized memory, it was the idea of a specialized brain.

brandnewlow 18y ago

Reading this, I acknowledge that there's some measure of good that comes out of being able to advance our understanding of how the brain works. At the same time, the whole enterprise, a failed surgery leading to a life spent as a guinea pig, strikes me as very sad. How many of these scientists secretly thanked the heavens that this guy lost out on a normal life so they could further their own work? How was he able to give consent to all this research without the ability to form new memories? I think we need to keep studying the world and pushing along our understanding of it, I just hope we never stop asking these sorts of questions along the way to keep ourselves human.

mechanical_fish 18y ago
How was he able to give consent to all this research without the ability to form new memories? The same way any mentally-incapacitated patient consents to treatment: They or the courts appoint a relative or a guardian to hold medical power-of-attorney, and that person as well as the patient must consent to treatment. Meanwhile, I'm not about to defend the ethical standards of mid-20th-century brain surgeons, but I will point out that H.M.'s surgeon was hardly operating outside the norms of his time: H.M. had epilepsy, which is a pretty scary disease; understanding of the brain was really poor, and psychosurgery was all the rage. Far more awful things were done in the 1950s and earlier. If you ever want to experience the real-history equivalent of a vampire film, google up the wikipedia entry on Rosemary Kennedy (or, related: Walter Freeman and/or transorbital lobotomy). Warning: I had nightmares for a couple of weeks. Seriously.
- palish 18y ago
  Yikes. As Dr. Watts cut, Dr. Freeman put questions to Rosemary. For example, he asked her to recite the Lord's Prayer or sing "God Bless America" or count backwards. ... "We made an estimate on how far to cut based on how she responded." ... When she began to become incoherent, they stopped. Talk about hard science.
- brandnewlow 18y ago
  I don't know that I've got the fortitude to look into it just now. I once almost feinted at the wheel while listening to a truly horrifying NPR piece called "my lobotomy." http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5014080 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5014080 And yes, by all accounts this was a case of people making the best of a bizarre situation. And I truly do hope that tangible good comes out this research if it has not already, beyond simply "we got a little smarter" which I find unsatisfying personally.

jgrahamc 18y ago

One of those great stories about patients who had a profound effect on an area of medical science. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Lacks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Lacks