Memento For Real

Super fascinating story about a "profound amnesiac" from the NY Times a little while back.

Short version: the man, previously known only as H.M., hit his head as a child, developed seizures, underwent experimental brain surgery (in the 40s!) to stop the seizures, and in the process, lost the ability to form new memories. Every twenty seconds, things were new again. Which made him a very important medical case:

And for...five decades, he was recognized as the most important patient in the history of brain science. 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.

A neurologist named Brenda Milner spent decades with H.M., studying the nature of his memory loss. Everytime she walked in the room, it was like they'd never met. In 1962, Dr. Milner presented a breakthrough study.

...she and H. M. demonstrated that a part of his memory was fully intact. In a series of trials, she had Mr. Molaison try to trace a line between two outlines of a five-point star, one inside the other, while watching his hand and the star in a mirror. The task is difficult for anyone to master at first.

Every time H. M. performed the task, it struck him as an entirely new experience. He had no memory of doing it before. Yet with practice he became proficient. “At one point he said to me, after many of these trials, ‘Huh, this was easier than I thought it would be,’ ” Dr. Milner said.

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. This system depends on the function of medial temporal areas, particularly an organ called the hippocampus, now the object of intense study.

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.

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