Lesion–symptom mapping
Link focal damage to selective deficits.
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
Research80
Awareness55
Complexity60
Clinical weight50
Plasticity45
Live debate40
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Last reviewed Sources & creditsMedia creditsMethodology
Quick answers
Who was patient H.M. in Milner story?
Henry Molaison (1953 bilateral medial temporal surgery). He lost new episodic memory while retaining skills — the dissociation that remade memory science.
What year marks Scoville and Milner report?
1957. The paper tied hippocampal removal to anterograde amnesia without collapsing language or IQ in the teaching summary.
What did mirror-tracing show?
H.M. improved at mirror-tracing across days without remembering the sessions — procedural skill without episodic recall.
Is this a clinical guide to epilepsy surgery?
No. History of published cognitive neuroscience. Not medical advice, diagnosis, or surgical counsel.
Where did Milner work for decades?
Montreal Neurological Institute — careful testing, frontal-lobe work, and mentorship alongside the H.M. archive.
What atlas regions pair with her lesson?
Hippocampus (memory index) and frontal lobes (control). Use dual-view; do not invent a personal lesion map.
Methods in Milner’s tradition emphasise lesion–behaviour mapping, longitudinal testing and tasks designed to separate memory kinds.
Modern imaging and computational models extend — they do not erase — the dissociation logic.
Tools
Mirror drawing / maze learning
Procedural probes that survive declarative loss.
Delayed recall / recognition
Quantify anterograde declarative failure.
Frontal sorting / fluency tasks
Strategy and generation beyond MTL amnesia.
MRI / histology follow-ups
Refine what surgery actually removed.
Longitudinal case series
Track stability of dissociations over years.
Protocols
Pre/post surgical batteries
Baseline and follow-up memory profiles.
Dissociation-oriented task sets
Pair declarative and procedural probes.
Remote memory interviews
Sample autobiographical gradient carefully.
Replication across patients
Avoid single-case overgeneralisation.
Limits
Single-case fame bias
H.M. is iconic; science needs converging cases.
Historical lesion imprecision
Early maps lacked modern imaging resolution.
Ethics of publicity
Naming and storytelling must respect persons.
Read primary papers before documentary simplifications.
Sources & research
- Loss of recent memory after bilateral hippocampal lesionsLandmark H.M. memory loss report.DOI
- The legacy of patient H.M. for neuroscienceLegacy review of patient H.M.DOI
- Cognitive neuroscience and the study of memoryCognitive neuroscience of memory synthesis.DOI
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