Concept
Version 16
Created by Boundless
Amnesia
The man with no short-term memory
In 1985, Clive Wearing, then a well-known musicologist, contracted a herpes simplex virus that attacked his central nervous system. The virus damaged his hippocampus, the area of the brain required in the transfer of memories from short-term to long-term storage. As a result, Wearing developed a profound case of total amnesia, both retrograde and anterograde. He is completely unable to form lasting new memories—his memory only lasts for between 7 and 30 seconds— and also cannot recall aspects of his past memories, frequently believing that he has only recently awoken from a coma.