The Life and Brain of H.M.

Dr. Suzanne Corkin on H.M.One of the highlights of this year's Cognitive Neuroscience Society Meeting was Dr. Corkin's keynote address about Henry Molaison the person and his lasting contribution to the neurobiology of memory. In her more timely recap of the meeting, Daisy Yuhas included this moving quote from H.M., who could not remember meeting Corkin even after decades of testing:Corkin also discussed the man behind the initials, describing his gentle and remarkably upbeat disposition, given that he was repeatedly confronting a confusing, context-free present. Her talk included a poignant and powerful audio recording of Corkin and H.M. chatting in 1992. In the excerpt, H.M. professes to “not mind” all of the tests and studies, saying simply, “I figure what’s wrong about me helps you help others.”Henry Molaison died on December 6, 2008. Corkin described the post-mortem handling of H.M.'s brain, which was first scanned before autopsy. Then the brain was removed and preserved in formaldehyde for 10 weeks, and later scanned in a 7T magnet (see Annese et al., 2014 for details).1H.M.'s brain flew Jet BlueH.M.'s brain was transported across the country, where it underwent lengthy processing prior to sectioning into 2,401 slices on a heavy duty frozen microtome (Annese et al., 2014).2 This event was webcast live at the Brain Observatory, which she said was “like watching paint dry.”  I beg to differ.  I thought the live coverage was like th...
Source: The Neurocritic - Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Source Type: blogs