Remembering HM

Henry Molaison, known to the scientific world as H.M., passed away on December 2, 2008. Henry was known personally to many of the Society's members who had worked with him and will miss him. In addition, all of us recognize the enormous contributions to our understanding of memory that were made possible by his generous willingness to participate in research over the last 55 years.

Sue Corkin gave the eulogy at his funeral, which she has kindly allowed us to post.

Below are comments from some of the scientists who worked with Henry over the years.

Morris Moscovitch:

Let me share a story with you about the only time I met him. Gordon Winocur and I were testing him in Sue Corkin's laboratory at MIT. We were interested in context effects on memory and so changed the context radically from a normally lit room and ambient noise, to a room with red lighting and some classical music playing in the background. There may have been some other changes, too, but I can't recall. While we were chatting before the experiment, Gordon asked him something about the music and alluded to our study. HM answered, "Oh, yes. Korsakoff." Gordon was as surprised as I was by the response. Thinking he had learned about the nature of his disorder, we pursued it further. HM said, "You know. Rimsky. Rimsky-Korsakoff." The music was from "Scheherezade".

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Remembering HM

Morris Moscovitch:

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