4.6 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 11 November 2021
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Even as recently as the early 1950s, we didn’t understand that there were different types of memory, or how the brain processed and stored memories. Then, in 1953, a radical surgery by a reckless doctor gave us tremendous insights into how human memory works. Those scientific gains came at a terrible cost, however. The surgery left the patient, Henry Molaison, a profound amnesiac -- completely incapable of forming new memories. This is his story.
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0:23.0 | It's a warm summer evening in 1935. |
0:27.0 | It's a warm summer evening in 1935 on a residential street in Manchester, Connecticut. |
0:37.0 | Nine-year-old Henry Molacian holds his breath as his father winds up and hurls of baseball high in the air like a pop fly. |
0:46.0 | Henry settles under the ball and watches it descend, holding his baseball glove over his head. |
0:51.5 | He flinches as the ball bounces off the heel of his glove and rolls onto the grass. |
0:56.0 | Hey keep your eye on the ball son. I'm trying dad. Henry picks up the ball and whips it back with his eyes cast down. |
1:04.1 | It sails high towards their front windows. |
1:06.6 | Henry cringes. |
1:07.9 | But his father, Gus, leaps and grabs it with a grin. |
1:11.5 | Now, Henry, squat down and play catcher. Let me get a few pitches in. |
1:15.0 | Suddenly, Henry's mom, Wizzy, calls out from the front steps. |
1:19.0 | Gus, no, he hates that. Henry, you don't have to play catcher if you don't feel like it. |
1:24.0 | Henry bristles at this. He hates the pity in her voice. |
1:28.0 | His mom has always been overprotective of him. But he's not a toddler anymore. He's nine years old. He ignores her and looks at his dad. |
1:36.0 | I'll play catcher. You sure, son? Henry nods and smacks his fist and his glove like he's seen his dad do. |
1:42.8 | Atta boy! |
... |
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