Permanent Present Tense: The Unforgettable Life of the Amnesic Patient, H. M.
Permanent Present Tense: The Unforgettable Life of the Amnesic Patient, H. M.
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永久现在时：失忆症患者难忘的生活，H. M.
DOI：
10.5860/choice.51-1171
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发表时间：
2013
影响因子：
3.5
通讯作者：
S. Corkin
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
S. Corkin
1953年，27岁的亨利·古斯塔夫·莫莱森接受了一项实验性的"精神外科"手术--一种有针对性的额叶切除术--以减轻他令人衰弱的癫痫。结果出乎意料--当亨利醒来时，他再也不能形成新的记忆，他的余生将被困在那一刻。但亨利的悲剧将证明是对人类的礼物。正如著名的神经学家苏珊娜·科尔金在《永久现在时态》一书中所解释的那样，她和她的同事们揭示了亨利严重的记忆障碍和他保留下来的智力之间的鲜明对比。这种新的见解，记忆的能力是在一个特定的大脑区域，革命性的记忆科学。亨利的情况--只知道他的首字母H。M.直到他在2008年去世--是神经科学螺旋式发展领域中最重要和最广泛引用的理论之一。科金和她的合作者与亨利密切合作了近50年，她用永久现在时态讲述了这个聪明，安静，非常幽默的人的生活和遗产的令人难以置信的故事。亨利从来没有记住科金从一次会议到下一次会议，只有一个模糊的概念，他们一起做的工作的重要性，但他总是很高兴见到她，并总是愿意参与她的研究。他的案例为记忆研究带来了难以言喻的进步，包括发现即使是深度健忘症也会使某些类型的学习消失，以及不同的记忆过程局限于人脑中不同的回路。亨利告诉我们，学习可以在没有意识的情况下发生，短期和长期记忆是不同的能力，衰老相关疾病的影响在已经受损的大脑中是可以检测到的。在对人类大脑功能的丰富细节的支持下，永久现在时态拉开了这个人的帷幕，他的不幸推动了半个世纪令人兴奋的研究。以极大的清晰度，敏感性，和优雅，科金带读者到神经科学的前沿，在这深切感受到挽歌为她的病人和朋友。
In 1953, 27-year-old Henry Gustave Molaison underwent an experimental "psychosurgical" procedure--a targeted lobotomy--in an effort to alleviate his debilitating epilepsy. The outcome was unexpected--when Henry awoke, he could no longer form new memories, and for the rest of his life would be trapped in the moment. But Henry's tragedy would prove a gift to humanity. As renowned neuroscientist Suzanne Corkin explains in Permanent Present Tense, she and her colleagues brought to light the sharp contrast between Henry's crippling memory impairment and his preserved intellect. This new insight that the capacity for remembering is housed in a specific brain area revolutionized the science of memory. The case of Henry--known only by his initials H. M. until his death in 2008--stands as one of the most consequential and widely referenced in the spiraling field of neuroscience. Corkin and her collaborators worked closely with Henry for nearly fifty years, and in Permanent Present Tense she tells the incredible story of the life and legacy of this intelligent, quiet, and remarkably good-humored man. Henry never remembered Corkin from one meeting to the next and had only a dim conception of the importance of the work they were doing together, yet he was consistently happy to see her and always willing to participate in her research. His case afforded untold advances in the study of memory, including the discovery that even profound amnesia spares some kinds of learning, and that different memory processes are localized to separate circuits in the human brain. Henry taught us that learning can occur without conscious awareness, that short-term and long-term memory are distinct capacities, and that the effects of aging-related disease are detectable in an already damaged brain. Undergirded by rich details about the functions of the human brain, Permanent Present Tense pulls back the curtain on the man whose misfortune propelled a half-century of exciting research. With great clarity, sensitivity, and grace, Corkin brings readers to the cutting edge of neuroscience in this deeply felt elegy for her patient and friend.