The story of Eugene Pauly (EP)
In 1992, Eugene Pauly was admitted to hospital, vomiting and experiencing severe stomach cramps. He was later diagnosed with viral encephalitis, a relatively less harmful virus but in rare cases, this virus finds its way to the brain and harms the brain tissues. In Eugene’s case, this virus had cut through the medial temporal lobe (a silver of cells which scientists believe is responsible for cognitive tasks like recalling past). He lost his semantic knowledge, for example, he could not remember the day of the week, could not remember the names of the nurses and doctors, had trouble recalling conversations. He had lost the ability to form any new memory and also was diagnosed with amnesia. He could not remember his friends and family. His case was studied by the memory specialists at the University of California. He was studied by Larry Squire, who had studied the neuroanatomy of memory for three decades. Squire observed that his brain was very similar to the very famous case of H.M. w...