In this blog I want to pose a different hypothetical situation to think about: what if your life was only contained in short bursts? If you literally lived minute by minute? For one man in particular this has been his life for the past 25 years.
Clive Wearing was a famous musician in his forties when he was stricken with encephalitis. When his encephalitis went away, Clive was left with the worst case scenario; an inability to form new memories and a loss of all previous memories. The loss of his past life, called retrograde amnesia, left him with no recollection of anything except for his wife and music. His new life was something that had never been documented before. It seemed as if every minute or so, to Clive, a new life began. In an attempt to document his life, he started to keep a journal. Most of the journal is filled with sentences like "I am just now awake" that are crossed out and re-written every few minutes. Oliver Sacks gives a great description of Clive Wearing here.
From Clive's injury, he had to move into a house that could take care of him full time. The only happiness in his day is when his wife appears and he gets to see her, although he thinks he has not seen her in years. When she steps out of the room and returns, he is surprised at her visit once again. And for Clive, this surprise happens every minute of every day.
As much as I can try to describe Clive and his life, the effect of his encephalitis is much more devastating when viewing him. Here are some videos of Clive throughout the years:
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
I hope that you were able to look at these case studies and learn something about the field of cognitive science that you previously didn't know. Thank you for reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment