I found this two-part documentary on YouTube. It's about a musician called Clive Wearing, who became amnesic following a herpes encephalitis infection that damaged his hippocampus, as well as parts of his frontal and temporal lobes.
Wearing's is the most severe case of anterograde amnesia ever recorded. Unlike the famous amnesic Henry M., who can learn simple motor skills, Wearing is incapable of forming any new memories whatsoever.
Wearing is the subject of this article in The New Yorker, by Oliver Sacks, whose new book about music and the mind is to be published soon.
[The custom media player above contains both parts of the documentary; the second part was filmed 13 years after the first. Part 1 is split into 2 clips, and part 2 into 4. Use the arrows at the edge of the screen to navigate from one clip to another.]
Comments (5)
My favorite podcast, radiolab, did a segment on Clive's story, plus two other stories on memory and forgetting. Everyone should subscribe to this podcast, it's truly amazing.
Posted by: Marcel Cairo | September 20, 2007 1:16 PM