Case studies of brain damaged patients

What are case studies?

Case studies are in-depth investigations of a single person, or small group, often focusing in unusual individuals - such as brain damaged patients. Data can be gathered using several different methods, such as MRI scans, medical records and experiments. Data can also be gathered through people who know the patient directly, such as family or friends and this data is likely to be qualitative and come from observations or interviews, allowing data collected to relate to events in the individual’s current life as well as their past.

Example of a case study?

HM had his hippocampus removed in order to alleviate epileptic seizures. He lost his ability to form different types of memory (eg- he struggled with face recognition), and he could recall childhood memories despite not being shoe to recall events that occurred only 2 years prior. He was noted to have had fewer seizures after his surgery.

Two strengths of case studies?

• They can be used to gain in-depth insight unto his memory works. For example, damage to specific parts of the brain and the memory impairment observed in the individual informs us how different parts of the brain are responsible for different types of memory

• They allow investigation into memory in an ethical way. Studying a particular individual with brain damaged patients is not practically nor ethically possible to recreate in lab conditions. This makes case schedules particularly useful for investigating brain damage as it gives a rich and detailed sight into how memory works

Two weaknesses of case studies?

• Findings can be difficult to generalise due to the uniqueness of the individuals used. For example, even when looking at individuals with damage to specific areas of the brain, the damage is rarely completely localised and there may be other damage not taken into account. This makes it particularly difficult to assume that others even with similar brain damage will have similar memory impairments

• Case studies often rely on gathering retrospective data about an individual’s memory prior to their damage. This is a problem as the information is not necessarily reliable or family / friends may show bias when reporting. Therefore, valid conclusions cannot be drawn about how brain damage affects human memory.