Memory Disorder - Case Studies

Case Studies

• A.J. (patient)
  

A.J. suffered from a rare memory disorder called hyperthymestic syndrome. She had an inability to forget. Her autobiographical memory was extremely accurate to the point that she remembered every day of her life in detail (with some exceptions). She was unable to control what she remembered or what she forgot.

• Clive Wearing
  

Clive Wearing suffered from anterograde amnesia after a rare case of Herpes Simplex Virus I (HSV-I) which targeted and attacked the spinal column and brain. The virus led to a case of encephalitis which caused the brain damage of his hippocampus, resulting in his amnesia.

• Henry Molaison, formerly known as patient H.M.
  

Molaison suffered from epileptic seizures and had his medial temporal lobes surgically removed to prevent or decrease the occurrence of the seizures. After the removal of Molaison's medial temporal lobes, he suffered from anterograde amnesia as well as moderate retrograde amnesia. Molaison was still able to retain procedural memory after the surgery.

• KC (patient)
  

"The extent of damage to K.C.’s medial temporal lobes, particularly to his hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus, and associated diencephalic and basal forebrain structures, is in line with his profound impairment on all explicit tests of new learning and memory. There is some uncertainty as to whether this pattern of neurological damage also accounts for his severe remote autobiographical memory loss while sparing his remote spatial memory."

• Zasetsky
  

Zasetsky was a patient who was treated by Russian neuropsychologist Alexander Luria