What will I learn about: how early civilizations, from prehistoric surgeons to ancient Egyptians and Hippocrates, first recognized the vital importance and fragility of the human brain?

Discover how early civilizations, from prehistoric surgeons to ancient Egyptians and Hippocrates, first recognized the vital importance and fragility of the human brain.

What will I learn about: Learn about the extreme experimental therapies of the 1930s, such as pyretherapy and insulin comas, which laid the dark groundwork for the rise of psychosurgery?

Learn about the extreme experimental therapies of the 1930s, such as pyretherapy and insulin comas, which laid the dark groundwork for the rise of psychosurgery.

What will I learn about: the chilling methodology behind Dr. Walter Freeman's lobotomies, where patients were kept conscious during surgery to ensure they achieved the exact right level of permanent disorientation?

Understand the chilling methodology behind Dr. Walter Freeman's lobotomies, where patients were kept conscious during surgery to ensure they achieved the exact right level of permanent disorientation.

What will I learn about: Explore how the medical consensus shifted from viewing the brain as a 'perfect democracy' to mapping specific functions like speech and memory to distinct anatomical regions?

Explore how the medical consensus shifted from viewing the brain as a 'perfect democracy' to mapping specific functions like speech and memory to distinct anatomical regions.

What will I learn about: how the reckless ambition of Dr. William Scoville led to the historic operation on Patient H.M., unintentionally unlocking the mysterious mechanisms of human memory?

Find out how the reckless ambition of Dr. William Scoville led to the historic operation on Patient H.M., unintentionally unlocking the mysterious mechanisms of human memory.

Patient H.M.

A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets

Luke Dittrich

★ 4.4 / 5(24 ratings)

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Categories:

History Science

If You're Curious About These Questions...

You should listen to this audiobook

💡Have you ever wondered what happens to your sense of identity when you lose the ability to form a single new memory for the rest of your life?
💡Did you know that one of the most significant breakthroughs in modern neuroscience was the result of a radical and controversial surgical gamble?
💡Are you curious about how a man who couldn't remember his own doctor ended up unlocking the secrets of how every human brain stores its past?

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Key Takeaways from Patient H.M.

✓Discover how early civilizations, from prehistoric surgeons to ancient Egyptians and Hippocrates, first recognized the vital importance and fragility of the human brain.
✓Learn about the extreme experimental therapies of the 1930s, such as pyretherapy and insulin comas, which laid the dark groundwork for the rise of psychosurgery.
✓Understand the chilling methodology behind Dr. Walter Freeman's lobotomies, where patients were kept conscious during surgery to ensure they achieved the exact right level of permanent disorientation.
✓Explore how the medical consensus shifted from viewing the brain as a 'perfect democracy' to mapping specific functions like speech and memory to distinct anatomical regions.
✓Find out how the reckless ambition of Dr. William Scoville led to the historic operation on Patient H.M., unintentionally unlocking the mysterious mechanisms of human memory.

Learning Tools

Reinforce what you learned from Patient H.M.

Mind Map

Patient H.M.

History of Brain Surgery+

Asylum Era Therapies+

Mapping Brain Functions+

The Case of Henry Molaison+

Breakthroughs in Memory+

Posthumous Legacy+

Quiz — Test Your Understanding

Question 1 of 9

Before the mid-1800s, how did most people view the functioning of the human brain?

A. As a highly compartmentalized organ where specific zones controlled specific tasks.
B. As a 'perfect democracy' where every section contributed equally to every function.
C. As a secondary organ that merely cooled the blood pumped by the heart.
D. As an entirely unalterable organ that could not survive any surgical intervention.

Question 2 of 9

What was Dr. Walter Freeman's primary goal when performing lobotomies on conscious patients?

A. To completely incapacitate violent patients so they could be easily managed by asylum staff.
B. To surgically remove the exact memories causing a patient's emotional trauma.
C. To cut until the patient reached the right level of confusion and disorientation, without making them brain-dead.
D. To extract small amounts of brain tissue to create a comprehensive map of human cognition.

Question 3 of 9

How did Dr. William Scoville alter the standard lobotomy procedure in 1948 to make it less destructive?

A. He used targeted radiation instead of invasive surgical tools.
B. He used a specially designed suction device to remove connecting fibers, reducing collateral damage.
C. He operated exclusively on the left hemisphere of the brain to preserve the patient's personality.
D. He placed patients in an insulin-induced coma beforehand to protect the brain's white matter.

Question 4 of 9

How did Dr. Wilder Penfield inadvertently discover clues about the location of the brain's memory center?

A. By electronically stimulating different parts of conscious epileptic patients' brains to map motor functions.
B. By performing autopsies on psychiatric patients who had suffered from severe amnesia.
C. By observing the behavioral changes in chimpanzees after their frontal lobes were damaged.
D. By analyzing the brain scans of patients suffering from severe physical trauma to the head.

Question 5 of 9

Why did Dr. Scoville decide to remove both hemispheres of Henry Molaison's (Patient H.M.) medial temporal lobes?

A. Brain scans explicitly showed that both hemispheres were severely diseased and necrotic.
B. It was the standard, federally mandated procedure for treating epilepsy in overcrowded asylums.
C. Henry and his family specifically requested a bilateral procedure to ensure his amnesia would be permanent.
D. Scoville knew the problem was in the medial temporal lobes but didn't know which hemisphere, so he removed both to ensure he got the problematic area.

Question 6 of 9

Through studying Patient H.M., Dr. Scoville and Dr. Brenda Milner concluded that which specific part of the brain acts as its memory center?

A. The inferior frontal lobe
B. The hippocampus
C. The cerebral cortex
D. The anterior cingulate

Question 7 of 9

What did Patient H.M.'s ability to improve at the mirror-tracing star test reveal about human memory?

A. That semantic memory can eventually replace episodic memory over time.
B. That amnesia only affects visual memory, leaving physical coordination completely intact.
C. That the brain possesses separate systems for conscious (declarative) memory and subconscious (procedural) memory.
D. That lost memories can be fully recovered through repetitive physical tasks.

Question 8 of 9

According to psychologist Suzanne Corkin, Patient H.M. completely lacked 'episodic memory.' How did this manifest in his life?

A. He could not learn how to perform new physical tasks like walking or tracing shapes.
B. He could remember certain facts, like having fallen in love, but couldn't recall the context or narrative of how it happened.
C. He lost all memory of his own name, hometown, and identity from before the surgery.
D. He was unable to process semantic memory and forgot all general knowledge of the world.

Question 9 of 9

What surprising discovery did Dr. Jacopo Annese make while dissecting Patient H.M.'s brain posthumously?

A. The hippocampus had actually begun to regenerate over the decades following the surgery.
B. Scoville had only removed the left hemisphere of the medial temporal lobe, not both as previously claimed.
C. A previously unknown lesion existed in the frontal lobe, suggesting doctors never fully understood Henry's condition.
D. The brain showed clear signs of severe Alzheimer's disease that had masked his original amnesia.

Patient H.M. — Full Chapter Overview

1Recommendation
2Our fascination with the brain has a long and truly storied history.
3Psychiatric asylums were home to experimental therapies, including the lobotomy.
4Lobotomies helped usher in a new grasp of the brain, and Dr. Scoville truly led the way.
5As our knowledge of the brain expanded, lobotomies seemed more justifiable.
6In the course of treating epilepsy, progress was made in locating the brain’s memory center.
7For Henry Molaison, Dr. Scoville’s lobotomy was truly a last resort.
8Henry’s profound amnesia gave doctors a new understanding of the brain.
9Henry’s condition also provided insight into different varieties of memory.
10Even after Patient H.M. died, fascination with his brain still persisted.

Patient H.M. Summary & Overview

Patient H. M. (2016) chronicles the history of the lobotomy procedure, focusing particularly on a famous figure in this story – an amnesic named Henry Molaison, or, as he is also known, Patient H.M. Journey back to when the lobotomy first became a popular treatment for mental illness and learn how it helped us better understand the brain.

Who Should Listen to Patient H.M.?

Science geeks interested in neuroscience
Readers who want to better understand themselves
Anyone interested in the history of medicine

About the Author: Luke Dittrich

Luke Dittrich is a contributing editor at Esquire, where his writing has won him the National Magazine Award. His first book, Patient H.M., was awarded the 2017 PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. He is also the grandson of infamous neurosurgeon, Dr. William Scoville.

Patient H.M.

If You're Curious About These Questions...

Listen to Patient H.M. — Free Audiobook

Key Takeaways from Patient H.M.

Learning Tools

Mind Map

Quiz — Test Your Understanding

Patient H.M. — Full Chapter Overview

Patient H.M. Summary & Overview

Who Should Listen to Patient H.M.?

About the Author: Luke Dittrich

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