H. M Case Study Essay

Case Study of H.M. The Case study of H.M., Henry Molaison, is about a man who struggled from a very severe case of amnesia. He has been one of the main subjects for researchers today and has provided scientists much more knowledge about the human brain and memory (Newhouse, 2007). “The early studies of H.M. provide a basis for modern neuropsychology, and the findings of those who have studied him are today a cornerstone in memory research” (Costandi, 2007). H.M. was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1926. H.M. had epilepsy, which ran through his family. Three of his cousins had epilepsy as well as his father’s side of the family. When he was nine, H.M. had a bicycle accident and he got a head injury from it. He soon began to get epileptic seizures from it, however, the origin of his epilepsy is still unknown. When H.M. was sixteen, he had his first major seizure. By the time H.M. was in his twenties, the severity and frequency of his seizures began to grow and get worse. He started having blackouts and seizures up to ten times a week. At the time H.M. was working as a motor winder, and
was twenty seven, he was sent to one of the founders of the Department of Neurosurgery, Mr. Scoville. He was sent here because he was completely unresponsive to his anti-convulsant drugs that he was given. H.M was going to get surgery done on his brain at the Hartford Hospital. Scoville had been experimenting with this surgery for treating psychosis. Scoville then performed an experimental surgical procedure on H.M. which was called a bilateral medial temporal lobe resection. This procedure involved removing big parts of the temporal lobe from both brain hemispheres. The amygdala and about two thirds of the hippocampus was removed (Costandi, 2007). In my opinion, I do not think that this procedure should have been done until preliminary experiments had been done before to make sure that that there were no negative outcomes from this