Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, San Diego, CA 92161, USA. lsquire@ucsd.edu
H.M. is probably the best known single patient in the history of neuroscience. His severe memory impairment, which resulted from experimental neurosurgery to control seizures, was the subject of study for five decades until his death in December 2008. Work with H.M. established fundamental principles about how memory functions are organized in the brain.