On Tuesday, December 2, 2008, Henry M., the most famous patient in modern neuroscience research and literature, passed away. He was 82. In 1953, H.M. had an experimental brain operation to try to stop his frequent seizures; his medial temporal lobes were resected bilaterally, with significant portions of his amygdalas and hippocampi in both cerebral hemispheres removed (parts of the brain are still resected in intractable epilepsy cases, however neurosurgeons do not perform that exact surgery any more because of the negative effects). His seizures stopped but immediately after the operation he had a severe anterograde amnesia. This means that from when he received the operation at age 27, he was unable to establish new memories for world events and for general information.
His amnesia became the focus of much scientific study from after his operation until the present. No one patient has been studied more in the 20th and 21st centuries than H.M. His memory impairment was also interesting because his overall intellectual abilities were still intact as was his personality. Neuropsychologists and neuroscientists will forever be grateful for the things they learned from H.M.
The New York Times has a very nice article about H.M.
