ABSTRACT
In 1968 an issue of Neuropsychologia (Volume 6, Number 3) was produced under the special editorship of Dr. Brenda Milner. This issue was entitled “Disorders of memory after brain lesions in man,” and five of the nine papers in it were devoted to a single subject, known as H.M. At that time H.M. was 42 years old; 14 years previously he had undergone a bilateral medial temporal-lobe resection for the relief of intractable epilepsy. As a result, although his seizures were reduced to manageable levels, he was left with a dense global amnesia. Today he is 62 years old, and neuropsychologists and cognitive psychologists continue to study his memory disorders and publish their findings. Indeed, he has probably had more words written about him than any other case in neurological or psychological history.
