Researchers at UCSD are in the process of dissecting famous Patient H.M.’s brain on the first anniversary of his death. H.M., of course, is the anterograde amnesia patient all of us rely on so much in our discussions of the hippocampus.
The Microtome Making a Slice of H.M.'s Brain
Many thanks to Joe Schroeder of FUN (Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience) for providing these links:
This is a live video feed of the two-day process.
A New York Times article about H.M.
Nova Excerpts on H.M.
Enjoy! This man made a huge contribution to our understanding of the mind.
7 Comments
aterpenny · December 3, 2009 at 6:11 pm
In reading the New York Times article, I cannot help but wonder why, after having acquired patient H.M.’s brain in February, they are finally beginning to dissect it now. I can only imagine that they were waiting to commemorate his death by beginning to slice his brain into its 2,500 slices exactly a year after he passed away.
Science will be very thankful once all of the slices are made and I am very intrigued and excited to learn of what they find.
I cannot imagine how hard it was for H.M. to maintain a daily life without having the capability to form any new memories. I am reminded by the movie 50 First Dates and “ten second Tom.”
It is very interesting to be able to view a live feed of H.M.’s brain being dissected in the UCSD labs. Not only does it show the microtome machine working away, but the scientists in the lab also update where they are in the brain every few minutes. Currently, they are about a quarter of the way done.
jessie ysunza · December 3, 2009 at 8:17 pm
The process in preserving and dissecting H.M’s brain seems very interesting to me. I am curious as to why they cut it into thousands of slices instead of investigating specific areas at a time. Also, why they preserved it for so long before investigating, possibly the advance in technology was worth the wait? It is interesting to think of how he lead his every day life, not being able to live in the past at all. Was he aware of what caused him to not be able to create new memories…that he underwent surgery, or was he just lost in all the confusion? It will be very neat to see what information researchers will obtain from the brain dissection, and how the knowledge will contribute to current medical issues related to memory. Although the results of H.M’s surgery were very saddening, i suppose it takes incidents like these for surgeons to not make the same mistake again.
Laura Freberg · December 3, 2009 at 9:02 pm
I’m not sure why there was the delay of one year. Perhaps there were some legal issues to decide. Brenda Milner has written extensively about her experiences with H.M., and you might want to read some of her work once finals are over 🙂
NikkiNoroian · December 3, 2009 at 10:12 pm
That picture is incredible. It is amazing that we have the technology to perform such a precise task—I just hope they don’t make a mistake! I checked out the live video feed of the slicing and plan to visit the H.M. blog and see their new discoveries. I think part of my intrigue in his story is the how much there is still unknown about his condition.
H.M. has been mentioned as an example of retrograde amnesia in my classes but I had forgotten (until I read the New York Times article) that he suffered from this condition for such a long time—55 years! It would be so confusing to go through life with no new memories and I imagine that H.M. must have felt so lonely. I am confident that the folks at UCSD will finally be able to make some discoveries about memory formation and am anxious to hear about their progress.
mmoeinaz · December 3, 2009 at 11:47 pm
I am completely shocked by what technology can do for us in our modern times. I feel so bad for H.M. but it is very fortunate that his condition will not go to waste because psychologists will now be able to study it and try to understand what happened in his hippocampus. It would be so hard to have a complete lack of memory. I wonder if H.M. is even aware of the fact that he cannot tell any stories or memories starting at a certain point where he had the brain injury and no longer was able to retain memories. I just feel that it would be such a frustrating situation if H.M was for example 50 years old, and could only recall memories from back when he was 22. I know that isn’t the actual age situation, but if it were the case, it would just be so mentally distressing if you have a conciousness of that. Or even worst, if he makes that realization, forgets it, and then realizes it again, going through the stress when he finds out. Anyways, I am certainly curious what progress they will make on the brain and I will follow up on the research they do on the slice of the brain!
GLicht · December 4, 2009 at 11:47 am
Just watched a few minutes of the live video feed!!- very trippy! I’m curious why Annese was fortunate enough to be the person who retreived H.M.’s brain for study? Lucky him! I find it very interesting that H.M. could believe he was experiencing a task for the first time, but was really improving in proficiency and his implicit/motor memory was in action. Knowing that there is more than one system in the brain for memory is very interesting! I hope that they are successful with their project, I will definitely be following up!
vdowell · December 5, 2009 at 1:38 am
Reading through the New York Times article really made me wonder if not having any new memories for 50 years had any emotional effects on H.M. What was it like for him to look in the mirror and see an old man looking back near the end of his life? Either way, if it bothered him or not, I’m wondering if having his terrible seizures cured was worth losing all memory abilities? I hope neurosurgeons aren’t taking risks like these too often!
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