H.M. (Milner
., 1968)
H.M. had been suffering epileptic fits of devastating frequency since the age of 16. At 27 he underwent surgery to remove the hippocampus
(a part of the brain) on both sides of his brain. While this completely cured his epilepsy, he was left with severe anterograde amnesia; he has near normal memory for anything learned before the surgery but severe memory deficits for events which occurred afterwards.
Clive Wearing (Baddeley, 1990)
Clive Wearing was the chorus master of the London Sinfonietta and a world expert in Renaissance music. In
March 1985 he suffered a rare brain infection caused by the cold sore virus which attacked and destroyed his hippocampus, along with parts of his cortex. He lives in a snapshot of time, constantly believing he’s just woken from years of unconsciousness. If his wife enters the room for the third time that morning he treats her as if they’d been parted for years.
His STM is generally normal. He can retain verbal information for about 15 seconds without rehearsal but he cannot transfer information to LTM, or if he can, he can’t retrieve it. He is incapable of remembering any new fact or event and has almost no knowledge of current affairs because he forgets all the news almost as soon as he’s read about it. He has no idea what time of day it is unless he’s just looked at a clock, he can’t remember his father has died and rereads the same magazine without realizing he’s already read it.
People he met after the operation remain total strangers even though they may have known each other for
25 years.
He’s able to learn and remember perceptual and motor skills but has to be reminded each day what skills he has.
At first his confusion was total and very distressing to him. Once he held a chocolate in the palm of his hand, covered it with the other had for a few seconds until its image disappeared from his memory. When he uncovered it he thought he’d performed a magic trick, conjuring the chocolate up from nowhere.
He can still speak and walk as well as read and play the organ and his musical ability is well-preserved.
However, his capacity for remembering his early life was extremely patchy. When shown photos of Cambridge, where he spent four years as an undergraduate, he could not recognize his own college.
He couldn’t remember who wrote
and though the
Queen was a singer he’d met at church.