I was reading the New York Times online the other day and I read this incredible article about a man named Henry Gustav Molaison. Most people knew him as "H. M." for protection of privacy. He died about two months ago at the age of 82 and he couldn't remember the last 55 years of his life. He would live day to day with only his short term memory and when he would go to sleep, he couldn't remember anything about the previous day.This was because when he was 9 he hit his head in a bike accident and developed repetitive seizures. When he was 27, he saw a doctor who tried something a little risky. He opened up his head and removed some part of his brain that he thought controlled the seizures. After he sewed him up and he came around, he realized that he forgot everything that had happened 20 minutes before. He only had his short term memory. He met with a doctor for weeks on end and everyday the doctor had to reintroduce himself. It was from this guy that we learned about the different types of memory. He still had his muscle memory, meaning that he could ride a bike and other things like that.
The cool part about him having his muscle memory is that this doctor gave him a puzzle to do, and he did it everyday. Each day seemed like it was the first time for H. M., but the amazing thing is that he got faster and faster doing it. After a while he said things like "Huh, that was a lot easier than I thought it would be..." Crazy, huh? His muscle memory could remember how to do the puzzle, but his normal memory had no recollection of doing it.
You can read the whole article here if you want to. It's really cool.
I've been trying to think of ways on how this story could better my life, and I realized it would be cool to be able to turn my memory on and off if I wanted to. Like, if I had to learn how to play a song on the piano, I would turn my memory off and just practice and practice. Without my normal memory, I wouldn't be able to keep track of time and wouldn't get bored with practicing. But since I would still have my muscle memory, I could come back the next day or week or something and would be able to play an awesome song without even practicing.
Probably the piano would catch on fire because my skills would be too great for it to handle.Can you think of any other applications?
6 comments:
Ha! I can't think of any immediate applications--but isn't the internet cool? Where else would you instantly be able to find a picture of a piano on fire so fast?
Also, that's a cool story.
Also, Nathan's getting his mission call this week!
I heard about this man on NPR! They played a audio clip of him talking and how he couldn't remember anything from the day before. I think his family donated his brain to a university for research to learn about memory and the brain. So fascinating!
I actually used that picture on the cover of my piano practice assignment book. And I mean the picture of the burning piano, not of H&M.
Haha, I know his name is H.M., not H&M, but H&M is probably one of my favorite stores, so, I was making a joke... hehe.
And yes, hopefully I will be getting my mission call this week! Yayayayayayay!
Hooray for Nathan!
I remember seeing a film about this guy when I was in college, about 16 or 17 years ago. Pretty amazing that we were still watching films in class then (not DVDs, not something from the internet - there was no internet yet unless you were in the military).
The film showed him writing in his journal. Over and over he would write, "I just woke up." They had an interview with his wife. She lived in her own apartment when the film was made, but would come visit him every day. I felt so sorry for both of them, but especially her.
i just noticed that his left elbow has a blue dot. not sure why that is there. i hope he didn't have that in real life.
I am feeling really creeped out about the "I just woke up" journal.
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