Another famous HM

[heem6]

I just read this and thought it was kind of interesting...enjoy.

Scientists know that several of the brain's regions are crucial for placing a memory in long-term storage, thanks in part to a remarkable man long known only as HM. A severe epileptic, HM underwent experimental brain surgery in 1953 in which parts of his brain were removed on each side, including chunks of the hippocampus. HM formed few new memories after that. People he met remained strangers, including a scientist who visited him regularly for decades.

But HM could learn new skills, like drawing an image while watching his hand in the mirror. Every time he did this, he thought it was the first time, yet his abilities steadily improved. Such "physical skill" memories were getting stored, but not their mental equivalents.

[feloniusb]

haha, it looks like a hippo campus where i work more and more these days ... the cafés around here should sell some healthy stuff. I read about similar experiments where they completely divided the two halves of the brain, which cured the epilepsy but the person developed a split personality according to the two halves of his body. each half was a stranger to the other half.

[heem6]

Haha. Pretty good one there, my friend!

I thought you were putting me on about the second part but I just looked it up and it's amazing that the split brain people had one hand doing one thing and the other hand doing the exact opposite.

It reminds me of a documentary I saw on cable one time about split-personalities. One lady had to wear glasses to see, but at least one of her personalities had perfect 20/20 vision!