Anterograde Amnesia

This article is actually a few years old and presents the case of a patient Henry M, his real name is kept private. Henry lived for 50 years with Anterograde Amnesia, a type of amnesia that essentially prevents one from forming any new memories. He was still able to remember his past his skill and who he was. Henry got this condition after the result of a brain surgery in 1953. During the operation to end the constant seizures that Henry was experiencing the surgeon removed his Hippocampi. Doing this ended the siezures but at the same time prevented Henry from forming and new memories.

Unfortunately for Henry this condition left him unable to continue a normal life. Though in the years after his surgery he became a very famous subject of the human brain. Through Henry neurologists have been able to learn a great deal about the way the brain works. However, even after 50 years of study little is still known about the way memory works. Sadly Henry has since passed, but he and his family agreed to donate his brain to science in order for further research.

This article was interesting cause it made me wonder what it would be like to have no memory of things seconds after I do them. It also showed how complex the brain is and even after 50 years of research many questions are still unanswered. It really begs the question that even with all the technological advances yet to be made will really ever really know the full capacity of the human brain.

http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=861#more-861