Hippocampus
H.M. suffered from intractable epilepsy (epileptic seizures)
- an epileptic seizure means that a large collection of neurons in the brain discharge in abnormal synchrony--seizures can be focal that spread throughout cortex or generalized, and may involve loss of consciousness as well as contraction of groups of skeletal muscle
- intractable means that his epileptic seizures were resistant to treatment
to stop his epileptic seizures, heunderwent bilateral hippocampectomy--bilateral removal of his hippocampi
following surgery:
- GOOD NEWS: his epilepsy stopped
- BAD NEWS: while he could remember events early in his life, he could not remember events just prior to surgery (mild form of �retrograde amnesia�), and he was unable to form new memories (�anterograde amnesia:)