Imagine remembering your childhood, your parents, the history you learned in school, but never being able to form a new long term memory after the age of 27. Welcome to the life of the famous amnesic patient “HM”. Neuroscientist Suzanne Corkin studied HM for almost half a century, and considered him a friend, even though he could never remember how he knew her. Suzanne gives us a glimpse of what daily life was like for him, and his tremendous contribution to our understanding of how our memories work.

This episode of Transistor is hosted by neuroscientist Wendy Suzuki and produced by Julie Burstein, with editing and sound design by Derek John.

Episode extras are at transistor.prx.org.

Image of Henry Moliason (Patient HM) in the lab, copyright Suzanne Corkin.