Remembering: What 50 Years of Research with Famous Amnesia Patient H.M. Can Teach Us about Memory and How It Works - Hardcover

by Donald G. MacKay (Author)

The psychologist who worked with a famous amnesiac patient for fifty years explains what his studies show about how memory functions and ways to keep the brain sharp. At age twenty-seven, Henry Molaison underwent brain surgery to remedy life-threatening epilepsy. This operation inadvertently destroyed his hippocampus, the engine in the brain for forming new memories. Henry--until recently, known only as Patient H.M.--suffered catastrophic memory failures for the rest of his life and he became the most studied amnesia patient in the history of the world. Dr. Donald MacKay's studies with Henry span fifty years. They reveal the profound importance of memory. Memory decline impacts everything that makes a normal human mind and brain worth having: creative expression; artistic endeavors; awareness; and the ability to plan, to comprehend, to detect and correct errors, to appreciate humor, to imagine hypothetical situations, and to perceive novelty in the world. His research also shows how to keep memories sharp at any age and how to offset the degradation that aging and infrequent use inflict on memory. Remembering summarizes other results of the revolution in scientific understanding of mind and memory that began with Henry. Importantly, it makes good on the promise that research with Henry would help others by focusing on what readers who wish to maintain the everyday functioning of memory, mind, and brain (their own or others') can learn from the still ongoing revolution that he inspired.

Author Biography

Donald G. MacKay, PhD, is currently a Professor Emeritus of Psychology at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), where he founded the UCLA Cognition and Aging Lab and co-directed the UCLA Language, Emotion and Memory Lab (LEMLAB). He has delivered over 200 invited talks around the world and has published over 145 scientific papers and two scholarly books on topics related to memory and the brain. His research at UCLA focused on the memory errors of older adults, undergraduates, and children in order to understand how memory, mind, and brain normally work. Beginning as a graduate student at MIT (the Massachusetts of Technology), Dr. MacKay analyzed the spectacular errors in speech, comprehension, and visual perception of the famous amnesia patient Henry Molaison in order to understand how damage to the hippocampus impairs the ability to learn new information and how normal people create new memories. To help future MDs gain insights into the unique needs of the older patients that will dominate their careers, Dr. MacKay recently organized a seminar on neurology, gerontology, and psychiatry for college graduates at Scripps College taking make-up courses needed for applying to medical school.