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The Mysterious Case of Patient H.M Rachel DeSau

Who Is Patient H.M?

Henry Molasian was born on February 26, 1926 and died on December 2, 2008. At around age 7 H.M was involved in a bicycle accident. The damage from the accident lead to the onset of epileptic seizures. These seizures got progressivley worse as he got older and became too much of a disruption to his life. He origonally suffered from focal (or partial) seizures in the beginning, which affect one hemisphere of the brain. His seizures eventually developed into tonic- clonic seizures where he experienced muscle contractions and debilatating symptoms. He underwent surgery in 1953 to correct his epilepsy. The surgery was called a bilateral medial temporal lobectomy. The surgery left Henry with what is known as anterograde amnesia. Henry could no longer form new memories, but still could recal certain past memories. H.M's case study was groundbreaking in regards to psychology and what we now know about damage to the hippocampus and memory loss.

The Surgery that altered hm's life

In 1953, Henry Molasion underwent a surgery to correct his epilepsy. Dr. William Scoville performed a bilateral medial temporal lobe resection. This surgery is also known as a temporal lobectomy, is done to recduce the severity of seziures and even completly eliminate them. During this surgery Henry's hippocampus was removed from both his right and left temporal lobes. His medial temporal lobes along with most of his amygdala were also removed. The complete removal of the hippocampus had never been done before. Dr. Scoville had little knowledge of the real function of the hippocampus at the time of surgery, and as a result severly imparied Henry's memory.

Anterograde amnesia

Anterograde amnesia can be defined as an individuals inability to create new memories after an amnesia induced incident. The individual may experience partial or total memory loss of recent events. The individuals short term memory is disrupted, but their long term memory usually remains in tact. Anterograde amnesia may affect somones episodic, semantic, or both episodic and semantic memory. Episodic memory refers to memory for events, situations, or experiences one has encountered in the past. Semantic memory is the memory for facts. The hippocampus is the brain region involved in anterograde amnesia.

The Hippocampus

There is a hippocampus located in both the right and left hemisphere in everyones brain. Located inside the temporal lobes the hippocampus plays a huge role in the limbic system. The main responsiblity of the hippocampus is the consolidation of memory from short term to long term memory it also aids spatial memory. With gains in knowledge about the hippocampus in recent years it is now known that the hippocampus plays a role in the formation of new memories as well. Especially declarative memories, also known as concsious memories, of events stored in your memory as well as spatial relationship memories.

Hippocampus Damage

The hippocampus can be damaged due to disease or injury. Some diseases that can damage the hippocampus' function include Alzheimer's disease and epilepsy. The removal of the hippocampus from surgery destroys the ability to encode and retrieve memories. Damage to the hippocampus affects one's ability to form new memories. The inability to form new memories is called anterograde amnesia.

Symptoms

Amnesia often gets misdiagnosed with dementia. Although the two are similar they are not the same. Anterograde amnesia is the inability to remember new information while dementia is a disease that affects your memory and information about who you are.

Anterograde amnesia affects your short term memory and one might forget things such as:

  • Someone they have recently meet
  • A new phone number or address
  • A recent meal they ate or when they ate it
  • The names of famous or well known people
  • New routine changes

Risk factors

The risk of developing anterograde amnesia is heightened if you have experienced:

  • Stroke
  • Seizures
  • Brain surgery
  • Brain injury
  • Brain tumors
  • Alcoholism
  • Car accident
  • Sports injuries/ concussions
  • Vitamin B1 deficiency
  • Dementia

Treatment

There is no cure for anterograde amnesia and there are no medications that can be taken to improve symptoms either. However, it can be managed. The use of technology to set reminders on the phone can help a person not foget to complete certain tasks throughout the day. An individual may also keep a journal or diary that they can refer back to to see their schedule of events they must complete in a day. Family support is also important because the individual suffering cannot help themselves so it is important that they are surrounded by loved ones who can care for them.

How religion can be incorporated into this case study

"When interdependence bcomes recognized... the correlative response as a moral and and social attitude, as a 'virtue', is solidarity. This then is not a feeling of vauge compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far. On the contrary, it is a firm and perserving determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say to the good of all and of each individual, because we are all responsible for all." - Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, para. 38

The common good:

We are all social beings who need one another. John Paul II says that the common good is connected to human dignity which in turn leads to solidarity. Solidarity should have no specific time or place to be expressed, but should be expressed always. It is the job of all people to make sure that those who are in need recieve love and care from the community at all times not just certain times. The duty of the society as a whole is to carry out the common good. In an article that speaks about the principles of Catholic social thought it states that, "Interdependence must be transformed into solidarity, based upon the principle that the goods of creation are meant for all. That which human industry produces through the processing of raw materials, with the contribution of work, must serve equally for the good of all." This means that multiple people and resources need to come together for the community and everyones God given gifts should be incorperated into society to do a certain job.

The bible in terms of memory

The Bible itself can be classified as a form of memory. The Bible has been passed down from gnerateion to genration. The Bible orignated as an oral tradition, the words of the scripture were verbally passed on from one person to the next so all would hear God's word. Eventually, the words of the Bible being passed down were written down and the physical Bible was created. To this day we still use the physical copy of the Bible to recount what origonated long ago as just spoken word. The Bible is a memory of all of God's words, miracles, and the events that took place. We now incorporate those memories into our religous practices.

Catholicism and memory

In the Bible Jesus says, "Do this is memory of me." When we recieve the Eucharist at church the priest will recite Jesus' words before the offering. It is recited because when we take the body and blood of Christ we must remember the sacrifices Jesus made for the good of all humanity. The Eucharist is a ritual that is done at every Catholic mass. Father Bryan Babick from the Diocesee of Charelston stated that, God's actions are not stuck in the past, but rather incorperated into the present as we see during the Eucharist during mass. We celebrate the memory of God's salvation.

Bible versus of solidarity

"Living in right relationship with others brings peace" - Psalms 72
"Blessed are the peacemakers, they will be called children of God" - Matthew 5:9
"Be reconciled to one another before coming to the alter" - Matthew 5:21-24
"Living rightly means to love one another" - Romans 13:8-10
"The love of God in us is witnessed to by our willingness to lay down our lives for others as Christ did for us" - 1 John 3:16-18

Solidarity

We are all brother's and sister's. No matter what your background is we are all one under God. Pope Paul VI said that to achieve peace you must work for justice. In an article by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, it states that we are called to be peacemakers. We are called to make peace not war and conflict. We must always love one another and be in peace and unity with one another. A great example of when we all need to come into solidarity for the common good is when we see our fellow brother's and sister's struggling. In less fortunate countries there are people who are deprived of things some of us take for granted. The United States bishops stress that greater attention needs to be given to those who are poor, weak, and who do not have as many resources. We as a human race need to come together and help those in need we are all brother's and sister's and cannot let one another fall short of basic human rights. Solidarity is committing onself to the common good.

Credits:

Created with images by Weksart - "brain reflection spirit" • fernandozhiminaicela - "hand lamp operating room surgery" • Stepan Popov - "Strips of newspaper with the words Amnesia. Black and white. Close up." • geralt - "annoy cells dendrites sepia" • merydolla - "The X-ray of the human brain" • STOATPHOTO - "signs and symptoms. Chalkboard on a wooden background." • MQ-Illustrations - "Risk Factors. Doctor in smock holds up business card. The term Risk Factors is in the sign. Symbol of disease, health, medicine" • raihanaasral - "TREATMENT PLAN word written on chalkboard with stethoscope and chalk on it." • Skitterphoto - "church altar pews" • Hucklebarry - "bible scripture book" • kbuntu - "Religious Concept" • Rawpixel.com - "Classmate Solidarity Team Group Community Concept"