H.M. (patient)
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H.M was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1926. He suffered from severe epilepsy, that has often been atributed to a bicycle accident at the age of 9, where he lost consciousness for 5 minutes. He began experiencing mild seizures, and had his first major seizure on his 16th birthday. He also had a family history of epilepsy stemming from his father's side. Into his late 20's, H.M. was experiencing up to 10 seizures and blackouts a week. His seizures were becoming incapacitating and he seemed to be unresponsive to anti-epileptic medications, even at maximum dosages. | H.M was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1926. He suffered from severe epilepsy, that has often been atributed to a bicycle accident at the age of 9, where he lost consciousness for 5 minutes. He began experiencing mild seizures, and had his first major seizure on his 16th birthday. He also had a family history of epilepsy stemming from his father's side. Into his late 20's, H.M. was experiencing up to 10 seizures and blackouts a week. His seizures were becoming incapacitating and he seemed to be unresponsive to anti-epileptic medications, even at maximum dosages. | ||
| - | In 1953, at the age of 27, H.M. was referred to | + | In 1953, at the age of 27, H.M. was referred to William Beecher Scoville, founder and director of the Department of Neurosurgery at Hartford Hospital. Dr. Scoville localized H.M.'s seizures to the temporal lobe, and on September 1st of that same year, he performed an experimental surgery on H.M. called a bilateral medial temporal lobe resection, removing parts of the temporal lobe from both hemispheres. The resection ultimately removed H.M.'s amygdala, entorhinal and perirhinal cortices, and two-thirds of his hippocampus. |
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[[Category:Neuropsychological profiles]] | [[Category:Neuropsychological profiles]] | ||
Revision as of 23:08, 13 April 2008
H. M. is the single most famous case study in the history of neuropsychology. H. M. is an anonymous memory-impaired man, who is only referred to by his initials of H.M. (his real name was Henry). H. M. has one of the most severe cases of amnesia ever recorded, and has been observed by over 100 researchers for over 40 years.
H.M was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1926. He suffered from severe epilepsy, that has often been atributed to a bicycle accident at the age of 9, where he lost consciousness for 5 minutes. He began experiencing mild seizures, and had his first major seizure on his 16th birthday. He also had a family history of epilepsy stemming from his father's side. Into his late 20's, H.M. was experiencing up to 10 seizures and blackouts a week. His seizures were becoming incapacitating and he seemed to be unresponsive to anti-epileptic medications, even at maximum dosages.
In 1953, at the age of 27, H.M. was referred to William Beecher Scoville, founder and director of the Department of Neurosurgery at Hartford Hospital. Dr. Scoville localized H.M.'s seizures to the temporal lobe, and on September 1st of that same year, he performed an experimental surgery on H.M. called a bilateral medial temporal lobe resection, removing parts of the temporal lobe from both hemispheres. The resection ultimately removed H.M.'s amygdala, entorhinal and perirhinal cortices, and two-thirds of his hippocampus.
