![]() ![]() ![]() The study of Henry Molaison was revolutionary because it showed that multiple types of memory existed. ![]() This indicated that although the hippocampus is crucial for laying down memories, it is not the site of permanent memory storage and isn’t needed for motor memories. He was, however, still able to improve his performance on various motor tasks, even though he had no memory of ever encountering or practising them. As a result, Molaison’s memory became mostly limited to events that occurred years before his surgery, in the distant past. However, after the surgery he was only able to form episodic memories that lasted a matter of minutes he was completely unable to permanently store new information. His epilepsy was cured, and Molaison lived a further 55 healthy years. How do we know this? In 1953, a patient named Henry Molaison had his hippocampus surgically removed during an operation in the United States to treat his epilepsy. Episodic memories are autobiographical memories from specific events in our lives, like the coffee we had with a friend last week. The hippocampus, located in the brain's temporal lobe, is where episodic memories are formed and indexed for later access. There are three areas of the brain involved in explicit memory: the hippocampus, the neo-cortex and the amygdala. The parts of the brain involved in memory (Illustration by Levent Efe) Explicit memory ![]()
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