neuro, thalamus, hypothalamus, midbrain
Course Logistics and Lecture Context
The quiz this week is not the end; it’s the foundation for the next thirteen weeks of material. Subsequent quizzes will follow the same pattern.
You can pick up some materials on the way out: coloring books (last page about spinal cord tracks; first page says “this book belongs to”); cranial nerve cheat sheets (not filled in yet—the answer keys are available for reference).
There is no quiz due this week.
Students should reread Chapter 1 and become very familiar with Chapter 5.
If you’re not comfortable with cranial nerves yet, start now because there are 12 cranial nerves (K?).
Next week there will be questions from the quiz; study guides are not as useful in grad school because you’re expected to know everything—no one will omit material from a study guide.
Big core content is essential; use the score and trouble areas to guide 공부 (study) focus.
Spelling matters: if you’re off by a letter or two, you’ll be graded more leniently; if you use the wrong word, that’s a problem. You’re entering a profession where spelling diagnoses correctly matters.
AI will be part of everyday life, but the key is the connection you make with the patient and the ethical presentation of information (logos and ethos).
Logos is the ability to explain, describe, and convey the science behind what you’re doing; ethos is about trust and credibility—if the patient or audience has to Google a diagnosis because you can’t spell or spell incorrectly, ethos is compromised.
If you need help, office hours are available (today and next week; additional times can be arranged).
Quick check: Who got to see the audiology candidate last week? There were many audiologists present; questions about how to hold, stop, and adjust movements were discussed; it’s all about motor control.
Cogwheel rigidity is described as a phenomenon where movement can get stuck in small increments, particularly in Parkinson’s disease.
A practical tip: patients may develop personal strategies to cope with motor symptoms (anecdotal example given about tilting the leg to move) – adapt to what seems to work for the patient.
There was a brief humorous aside about Parkinson’s disease and service dog choices, used to illustrate practical considerations in patient care.
Short-term memory is described as storage and manipulation (working memory); motor memory is about learning and retaining motor patterns.
Memory aids: a looped-minding tactic was described (tie a loop with laces around fingers to help hold and manipulate objects); this illustrates how motor memory and procedural strategies support daily tasks.
Personal memory and experiential content (Halloween, scary movies) are used to illustrate how experiences can be differently valued or remembered by individuals, highlighting variability in memory and emotion.
Memory Systems and the HM Case (Patient HM)
Henry Molaysan is referred to as “Patient HM” in most literature; the narrative uses “Henry” or “Henry Molaysan” interchangeably.
Case background:
Seizures began in childhood after a bicycle accident that fractured the skull.
By age 27, seizures were severe and disabling; a lobotomy was considered to relieve seizures.
Surgeon: William Scoville, a well-known lobotomist.
On 1953-09-01, a bilateral resection removed a thumb-sized portion of tissue from both sides of Henry’s brain, including most of the medial temporal lobe (hippocampus, amygdala, entorhinal cortex).
Immediate outcomes:
Seizures were alleviated to some extent following the surgery.
Severe anterograde amnesia emerged: an inability to form new memories after the surgery.
IQ remained high post-surgery; language and motor functions were preserved.
Old memories remained largely intact prior to the surgery (retrograde memory preserved for many events before surgery).
The significance for memory science:
Brenda Milner (and later Suzanne Corkin) studied HM for decades and established foundational ideas about memory localization.
Milner’s early observations suggested memory might be distributed across the brain, but HM helped demonstrate that there are distinct memory systems localized to specific brain structures.
HM’s case demonstrated that memory