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Open Science - post-mortem analysis of H.M.'s brain

By clock on December 13, 2008.

As you know, H.M. died last week.

Listen to this brief (9 minutes) NPR Science Friday podcast - you will be able to hear Henry Gustav Molaison's voice. But most importantly, he has donated his brain to further scientific study. His brain will be sliced and stained and studied at The Brain Observatory at the University of California, San Diego.

But the way they are going to do it will be in a very Open Science manner. Dr. Jacopo Annese, who is leading the project said, in this interview, that the entire process will be open - there will be a forum or a blog where researchers from around the word can make suggestions and discuss the procedure and the results. This will include, especially, people who have worked with Molaison when he was alive and may, thus, have the most insight into what would be most important to study, e.g., exactly what dyes to use to trace which brain circuits, etc. It will be interesting to watch.

Tags
history of science
neuroscience
open science

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"Henry G. Molaison, 82, of Windsor Locks, CT died on Tuesday. He is known in the medical and scientific literatures as "the amnesic patient, H.M." He was born in Manchester, CT and graduated from East Hartford High School.

RIP Patient H.M.

Patient H.M. just died:

We'll remember H.M. even if he could not remember us

Everyone who's ever taken a Neuroscience class in college remembers the strange case of H.M. H.M. suffered from epilepsy. Back in 1953, his brain was operated on - some large chunks (the hippocampi) were removed. Epilepsy was gone. So was his memory.