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Revision as of 04:09, 11 February 2004
The patient known as HM is very important in the development of cognitive neuropsychology.
In 1953 HM had a bilateral removal of the medial temporal lobe of his cerebral cortex in order to alleviate the effects of intractable epilepsy. He lost 2/3 of his hippocampal formation, parahippocampal gyrus, and amygdala. After the surgery he suffered from severe anterograde amnesia: although his short-term memory was intact, he could not commit new facts or events to long-term memory. He also suffered moderate retrograde amnesia, and could not remember things in the most events in the 3-4 period before surgery, and some events up to 11 years before. He could however learn new motor skills, despite not being able to remember learning them
The case was first reported in a paper by Scoville and Milner in 1957. Psychological investigations of this patient were led by Brenda Milner.