H.M. Case Study - Brenda Milner (1965)

Useful for?

Localization, ethics, memory, and BST

Method

Case Study and MRI (Corkin et al. (1997)

Aim

To investigate the extent and nature of H.M.’s memory deficits and how they relate to his brain damage

Lore

• H.M. suffered from a bike accident at 7 years old that caused severe epileptic seizures

• At 27 years old he underwent a surgery to remove parts of his temporal lobes and caused him anterograde and partial retrograde amnesia

Star Task (motor skill learning task)

H.M. would have to trace the outline of a star while lookeing at the reflection of it through a mirror.

Findings

• Short-term memory is not stored in the hippocampus since H.M. could retain information for short periods if he rehearsed it.

• H.M. could remember things from before his surgery, which suggests the temporal lobe plays a role in the organization and storage of memory somewhere else in the brain

• H.M. could still create procedural memories even if he did not remember performing a task.

  
  

Corkin et al. (1997)

• Performed an MRI on H.M.’s brain post mortem

• Found that the damage to H.M.’s brain was more extensive than they had thought.