H.M. never again! An analysis of H.M.'s epilepsy and treatment

Revue neurologique
F Mauguière, S Corkin

Abstract

On August 25, 1953, the patient H.M., aged 27, underwent a bilateral surgical destruction of the inner aspect of his temporal lobes performed by William Beecher Scoville with the aim to control H.M.'s drug refractory epileptic seizures and alleviate their impact on his quality of life. Postoperatively, H.M. presented for 55 years a "striking and totally unexpected grave loss of recent memories". This paper reports what we know about H.M.'s epilepsy before and after surgery and puts forward arguments supporting the syndromic classification of his epilepsy. We attempted to elucidate what could have been the rationale, in 1953, of Scoville's decision to carry out a bilateral ablation of H.M.'s medial temporal lobe structures, and we examined whether there was any convincing argument published before 1953 suggesting that bilateral hippocampal ablation could result in a permanent and severe amnesia. Our a posteriori analysis of H.M.'s medical history suggested that he was most probably suffering from idiopathic generalized epilepsy with absences and generalized convulsive seizures worsened by high dosage phenytoin treatment, or less probably from cryptogenic frontal lobe epilepsy. Importantly, he did not have temporal lobe epilepsy....Continue Reading

References

Jul 1, 1997·Neuropsychologia·S OxburyK Carpenter
Apr 21, 1998·Seizure : the Journal of the British Epilepsy Association·S Baxendale
May 13, 1998·Epilepsia·E PeruccaO Dulac
Oct 14, 2000·Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry·G B Frisoni
Feb 12, 2002·Nature Reviews. Neuroscience·Suzanne Corkin
Oct 1, 1952·A.M.A. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry·L H MARGOLISJ E ADAMS
Nov 1, 1952·Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology·P D MACLEAN
Jan 1, 1954·Journal of Neurosurgery·J L POOL
Jan 1, 1954·Journal of Neurosurgery·W B SCOVILLE
Feb 1, 1957·Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry·W B SCOVILLE, B MILNER
Jan 1, 1958·The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease·J W PAPEZ
May 1, 1958·A.M.A. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry·W PENFIELD, B MILNER
Jul 1, 1958·The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease·P D MACLEAN
Dec 25, 2003·Neurology·Selim R BenbadisMaria Gieron
Mar 1, 1951·A.M.A. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry·H JASPERH FLANIGIN
Feb 1, 1951·Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology·W T LIBERSONR H DUNSMORE
Apr 1, 1952·Monatsschrift für Psychiatrie und Neurologie·P GLEES, H B GRIFFITH
Sep 20, 2005·Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry·F ManesJ R Hodges
Oct 4, 2006·Hippocampus·D H SalatS Corkin
Nov 25, 2006·Brain : a Journal of Neurology·L NobiliM Cossu
Jan 17, 2009·Neuron·Larry R Squire
Jun 10, 2009·Archives of Neurology·Lynette G SadleirKevin Farrell
Oct 31, 2012·Epilepsia·Udaya SeneviratneWendyl D'Souza
Aug 27, 2014·Hippocampus·Jean C AugustinackSuzanne Corkin

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Citations

Aug 15, 2015·Cerebral Cortex·M Thiebaut de SchottenM Catani
Jun 11, 2021·Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports·Karen G Langer

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Absence Epilepsy

Absence epilepsy is a common seizure disorder in children which can produce chronic psychosocial sequelae. Discover the latest research on absence epilepsies here.

Amygdala: Sensory Processes

Amygdalae, nuclei clusters located in the temporal lobe of the brain, play a role in memory, emotional responses, and decision-making. Here is the latest research on sensory processes in the amygdala.

Amygdala and Midbrain Dopamine

The midbrain dopamine system is widely studied for its involvement in emotional and motivational behavior. Some of these neurons receive information from the amygdala and project throughout the cortex. When the circuit and transmission of dopamine is disrupted symptoms may present. Here is the latest research on the amygdala and midbrain dopamine.

Related Papers

Surgical Neurology
B B Whitcomb
JAMA : the Journal of the American Medical Association
Renata R KielingEliseu Paglioli
JAMA : the Journal of the American Medical Association
Juan Gomez-Alonso
Brain and nerve = Shinkei kenkyū no shinpo
Juro Kawachi
© 2022 Meta ULC. All rights reserved