Imagine that every time you met someone new, the moment they left the room you forgot you had ever spoken to them, and when they returned it was as if you had never seen them before. Imagine remembering your childhood, your parents, the history you learned in school, but never being able to form a new long term memory after the age of 27.
Welcome to the life of the famous amnesic patient “HM”, who had experimental surgery to relieve his terrible epilepsy, and woke up with a profound memory impairment. Wendy speaks with neuroscientist Suzanne Corkin, who studied HM for almost half a century and considered him a friend, even though he could never remember how he knew her. Suzanne gives us a glimpse of what daily life was like for HM, who we know now as Henry Moliason, and his tremendous contribution to our understanding of how our memories work.