MARSLEN-WILSON: And where were you? Where was this? At home?
H.M.: Yes, this was at home.
Wilson asked Henry about other milestones of the war.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Do you remember, er, VE Day?
H.M.: Well, Victory-in-Europe Day?
MARSLEN-WILSON: Do you remember the celebration? Where were you when that happened? Do you remember anything about it?
H.M.: I don’t remember exactly where I was, and then again I have an arg…uh, a feeling that I was in, uh, we were down, I say Hurd Park…and we were on a picnic. And the people heard about it there, on their car, because their car had a radio, our car did not, and they told everybody. And everybody hollered and jumped around.
MARSLEN-WILSON: What was this for?
H.M.: For VE Day.
MARSLEN-WILSON: I see. What about VJ Day? Do you remember how you heard about that?
H.M.: Well…
He paused.
H.M.: No…
He paused again, staying silent for about ten seconds. He searched his mind for a memory. He came up empty.
H.M.: The actual VJ Day I don’t remember.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Do you know who is president now?
H.M.: No, I don’t. To be truthful to you, I don’t. Because I was wondering right along then. I said, well now, who is president now? Trying to put two and two together. And, well, some of the answers that I was giving, that were correct, and some of the way you were wording things, so I was associating them together in a way, and then maybe come up with it, the name and everything.
He paused.
H.M.: And I think of Dewey. Uh, was a governor of New York State.
MARSLEN-WILSON: And he may be president now?
H.M.: And he may be president now. Thinking of the black suit that he wears and the white shirt. That’s what I think of.
MARSLEN-WILSON: What’s he look like?
H.M.: Well. Five-foot-eight, about. Six or eight. Five-foot-six or eight. And, uh, his round head more…hair naturally, covering his head…and…
MARSLEN-WILSON: This is Dewey?
H.M.: Hmm?
MARSLEN-WILSON: This is Dewey?
H.M.: This is Dewey. And. And. Had a very large, uh, a large head…a larger head than you’d expect for a person of his size.
MARSLEN-WILSON: What about, er, Nixon?
H.M.: Well, I think of him being a president and then a vice president.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Yes, what happened to him? Is he still president?
H.M.: And…I think he is. Still president.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Does he have a wife?
H.M.: Pat Nixon.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Any children?
H.M.: And, er, children. I think of four boys right off.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Four boys?
H.M.: I think of boys. Four boys. And I think he has girls. I mean, three boys, anyhow. Not four boys, three.
Wilson paused. At the time of the interview, in 1970, Richard Nixon was president of the United States. He had also, years before, been vice president. His wife was named Pat. Henry’s comments about Nixon’s children were completely wrong, though. Nixon had two daughters, no sons. There was, however, a different prominent political family that did have three brothers and one sister. Four brothers, if you counted the one who died in action during World War II.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Do you know of any, anybody called Kennedy who has been president?
H.M.: Ye…Well, he’s been a president, and I believe, well, uh…Trying to think of his first…Robert, isn’t it? Robert Kennedy?
MARSLEN-WILSON: Yes, what happened to him? Is he still president?
H.M.: No, I don’t believe he is….I think of him being shot.
MARSLEN-WILSON: He was shot? Where? When?
H.M.: The date I cannot tell you. And, er, I think of Ohio right off.
MARSLEN-WILSON: I think it was further south and west than that.
H.M.: When you say that then I thought of Alabama.
MARSLEN-WILSON: No, I think it was further southwest.
H.M.: Southwest. Isn’t…it’s around Ohio?
MARSLEN-WILSON: Much further south and west.
H.M.: Much further so…Well, uh, I think of Reno right off?
MARSLEN-WILSON: Reno?
H.M.: Yes, Nevada.
MARSLEN-WILSON: You think he was shot there?
H.M.: And I don’t think he was shot there….I think it was a town just outside that, though.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Yes, who was he shot by?
H.M.: Uh, well, the guy that pulled the trigger, naturally.
MARSLEN-WILSON: That’s right. [Laughter.]
H.M.: I don’t remember his name.
MARSLEN-WILSON: What, what were the circumstances of the shooting?
H.M.: Well, he was…I think of him on a re…on a review…and…er…the assassin was I think of two stories up, in a window, shooting down….
MARSLEN-WILSON: Yes. What do you mean, “He was on a review”? He was walking somewhere?
H.M.: He wasn’t walking, he was in a car. He was riding in a car.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Was there anyone in the car with him?
H.M.: And I think of his wife right off.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Yes. What was she called?
H.M.: I think of Pat. And. There was a general in the car with him.
MARSLEN-WILSON: A general?
H.M.: Yes, a general.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Was he shot, too?
H.M.: And there I have, er…I know a bullet passed through him. And, uh, I…I say him…Being of course both males there, in the backseat. That were sitting…Er. And went into…Pat Nixon.
MARSLEN-WILSON: She was shot?
H.M.: By the bullet that went through. One of them, or ricochet. No. I just thought: “ricochet,” right off. That came right like that. [He snapped his fingers.] I think it was a bullet that went through one of them and then ricocheted off, or something.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Who did it hit?
H.M.: Well, went through one of them and hit Pat.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Pat who?
H.M.: Nixon.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Uh-huh. Do you…the assassin, you don’t remember? If I told you his name began with O…The man who shot President Kennedy?
H.M.: I think of O’Hara right off.
MARSLEN-WILSON: O…S…
H.M.: Oswald.
Memory scientists divide amnesia into two basic types: anterograde and retrograde. Anterograde means “moving forward” and retrograde means “moving backward.” It was obvious since almost the moment he emerged from the operating room that Henry suffered from profound anterograde amnesia: He could hardly remember any new events as he moved forward through time. But he also, though less obviously, suffered from severe retrograde amnesia. Many of the years immediately preceding the operation were blank to him, and interviews helped paint a picture of just how far back Henry’s retrograde amnesia stretched. His personal recollection of major world events appeared to be more or less intact up to 1944 and the German surrender. His personal recollection of the Japanese surrender the following year, however, appeared to have dropped away. He could remember where he was at the beginning of the war but not the end.
This fit nicely with the dominant theory of how experiences are turned into permanent long-term memories. According to that theory, memory traces—the first products of lived experiences—exist in a fragile, impermanent state for years, a limbo of sorts. These traces reside in various parts of the brain, but if they’re going to stay accessible down the road, the hippocampus must work on them, strengthening them, sending neural impulses to them and receiving impulses from them for years, until one day they become strong enough to live on their own, at least somewhat independent of the medial temporal lobes.
Henry’s answers often supported that framework: He remembered what researchers expected him to remember, forgot what they expected him to forget.
But researchers struggled to make sense of the
clear exceptions to Henry’s amnesia. How did he know anything at all about the Kennedys and the Kennedy assassination? Or Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat? They offered tentative explanations. Maybe some vestigial portion of his hippocampus allowed particularly vivid events or people to stick. Or maybe other nearby brain structures had picked up the slack, taking over some of the functions of Henry’s medial temporal lobes.
Nobody knew for sure.
Sometimes Henry just remembered things he had no business remembering.
Other times, he remembered things that never happened at all.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Do you know who any of the people there are?
Wilson held up a photo.
H.M.: I think of the Rolling Stones right off.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Rolling Stones? Who are the Rolling Stones?
H.M.: Rolling Stones were the singers.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Yes. What sort of music?
H.M.: Jive music.
Wilson pointed at the photograph again.
MARSLEN-WILSON: They’re not the Rolling Stones.
H.M.: They’re not the Rolling Stones….No…I didn’t think they were because I thought there was five…Rolling Stones.
MARSLEN-WILSON: That’s right.
H.M.: And I can only see four there.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Their name begins with B.
H.M.: Uh. B. I know they’re brothers. They’re naturally four brothers. Because there’s four of them there…and…But I can’t think of their names.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Beatles. Did you ever hear of them?
H.M.: B-E-A-T-L-E-S, the Beatles.
MARSLEN-WILSON: That’s right. Do you listen to them?
H.M.: No. I haven’t.
MARSLEN-WILSON: But you know how to spell their name?
Henry went quiet for a few seconds, his gaze shifting to one side. He was having a petit mal seizure. Maybe he scratched at his leg, maybe his jaw moved up and down, back and forth. Then he stopped seizing and came to.
H.M.: Hmm?
MARSLEN-WILSON: You know how to spell their name?
H.M.: Whose names? See, I’m sorry. I went into a spell. Just as you were asking the question and everything. I sort of, popped right out.
MARSLEN-WILSON: What do you…What happens…What do you feel when that happens?
H.M.: Don’t feel anything in a way and…it’s just that…well…I guess you could say…like waking up in the morning, when an ordinary person wakes up in the morning they come…and…to a realization of things…that I guess you could call it…more realization of…and…well…the big question mark that you have yourself, of course. You wonder what the heck it is now, because you know that you’ve been awake before, because you remember that in a way, but…not in the way you…but…not remembering in a way, but you know that you’ve been awake, then that little blank spell and you wonder what has been going on there. Because there might have been something, an awful lot. And you don’t remember, and like you, even though you heard…you couldn’t tell if…was…what the person said or anything like that…you wonder…yourself.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Well all I asked you was what was…uh…
H.M.: The names.
MARSLEN-WILSON: I can’t remember myself now! Oh yes, the Beatles.
H.M.: Beatles…I was, uh, thinking of names, trying to think of the…uh…I was thinking of first names of the Beatles and…can’t think of them.
MARSLEN-WILSON: You thought of another singing group, didn’t you?
H.M.: I can’t think of it, no.
Wilson held up another photograph, this one of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Now, what’s this a picture of?
H.M.: Well, it’s a man walking on the moon.
MARSLEN-WILSON: You reckon?
H.M.: Um, that’d be the first photograph of a man walking on the moon.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Do you know the name of anybody on the moon…went to the moon…what do they call them?
Wilson waited for a while, then gave Henry the answer.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Astronauts.
H.M.: Ah, the astronauts. And. Right as you say astronauts, I think of, uh, how there are some going around…and some guys that, uh, four of them, trying, call themselves the Astronauts, and they are trying for…They call themselves the Astronauts. Singing.
MARSLEN-WILSON: The Astronauts?
H.M.: Yes.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Singing?
H.M.: Well, they call themselves the Astronauts. They are not…
MARSLEN-WILSON: Ah, they’re a singing group?
H.M.: They’re a singing group.
MARSLEN-WILSON: And what sort of music do they play?
H.M.: Well, jive music.
Wilson held up a photograph of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald. It was the famous photograph taken just a second after the gunshot, Oswald facing the camera, Ruby lunging toward him, the pistol aimed at his gut.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Do you know who that is?
H.M.: Well, I think of Frank Sinatra. Right off in the middle. That’s being shot.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Do you think it must be in a movie, or what?
H.M.: Ah, uh. And I think of Boston.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Frank Sinatra being shot in Boston?
H.M.: I think that’s it. And. Uh. I have an argument with myself, though. Of Boston and…or was it out through…was it…not out through…But was it in Dallas? And then…Then Detroit comes into the picture.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Where who was shot?
H.M.: Um. Sinatra, I think…The man in the middle.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Who’s he being shot by?
H.M.: And I think of…thought…I think I said that right…I…Probably wrong. The Oswald. That’s what I thought. I thought of Oswald.
MARSLEN-WILSON: Where? What? Do you think that’s Oswald?
Wilson pointed at Oswald.
H.M.: No. That one.
Henry pointed at Ruby.
MARSLEN-WILSON: So Oswald is shooting Frank Sinatra?
Henry nodded.
H.M.: Frank Sinatra. In Detroit.
—
The questioning went on for days, years, decades.
Graduate students would cycle in and out of MIT’s Clinical Research Center, cherishing the time they got to spend with the increasingly famous Patient H.M. Jenni Ogden, for example. A visiting neuropsychologist from Auckland University who spent 1986 to 1987 in Corkin’s lab, Ogden recorded several of her conversations with Henry, brought the tape back with her when she returned home, held on to it for decades, and still listens to it now and then, like a favorite album. Some of the recordings document an unpublished experiment she conducted with Henry, when she tried to determine if he was capable of parroting different emotional states. (She asked him to repeat the phrase “We’re going to the movies” in just about every way imaginable: sad, angry, anxious, happy, amused. He did fine.) The parts of the tape Ogden likes best, though, are the less structured parts, like the bit when she and Henry just sat and chatted about Elvis.
OGDEN: Do you know what Elvis Presley was? Or is?
H.M.: Well, he was a recording star. And he used to sing a lot.
OGDEN: He did indeed! What sort of things did he used to sing?
H.M.: Well, jive.
OGDEN: Jive, yeah. Do you like to jive? Or did you like to jive?
H.M.: No.
OGDEN: Why not?
H.M.: I didn’t…Well, I liked to listen. That was all.
OGDEN: You did. He’s a good singer. Do you think he’s still alive, Elvis Presley?
H.M.: No, I don’t think so.
OGDEN: Have you any idea what might have happened to him?
H.M.: Well, I believe that he got the first bullet. I think. That was for Kennedy, I think it was.
OGDEN: And you remember Kennedy?
H.M.: Yeah. Robert.
OGDEN: Robert Kennedy. What was he?
H.M.: Well, he was the president. I think about three times.
OGDEN: The president about three times.
H.M.: Yeah. He was appointed president, too. And he got a bullet.
OGDEN: So what was that all about?
H.M.: Well, they were trying to assassinate him.
OGDEN: And did they? Did they kill him or not?
H.M.: No, they didn’t.
OGDEN: So is he still alive?
H.M.: Yes, he’s still alive. But he got out of politics….
OGDEN: What’s that thing over there?
H.M.: Well. I think, a videograph.
OGDEN: A videograph? I’ll give you a…What’s another word for it? Anything else you can think of?
H.M.: Well, you can see…You can put questions in it, and you have a yes or no on it, too.
OGDEN: That’s right. You certainly do. That’s called a co…?
She paused, waiting for him to complete the word.
H.M.: Cardiograph?
OGDEN: No. Com…? Com…?
H.M.: Compressor?
OGDEN: No. You sometimes get it. Com…?
H.M.: I can’t think of the word.
OGDEN: Computer.
Henry’s failure to come up with the word was not a surprise. Computers like the one sitting on a desk in the examination room weren’t invented till long after 1953, and Henry’s vocabulary had more or less ceased to expand since his operation, though occasionally he could come up with a word if prompted with the first syllable or two. Sometimes researchers asked Henry to provide definitions for modern words or terms, and his answers were almost always wrong. He defined boat people as “people who cater bon voyage parties,” granola as “a portable keyboard wind instrument,” apartheid as “the separation of young cows that have not yet given birth to calves,” and brainwash as “the fluid that surrounds and bathes the brain.”
OGDEN: Can you tell me who the president of the United States is at the moment?
H.M.: No, I can’t.
OGDEN: Who’s the last president you remember?
H.M.: I don’t…Ike.
OGDEN: Ike. Now, if I tell you that the president now used to be a film star, does that help? Not a very good film star, but he used to be one a long time ago. I think he used to be a film star in Westerns. And now he’s the president of the United States. Rea…?
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