logoalt Hacker News

card_zero • last Monday at 7:57 AM • 1 reply • view on HN

Henry Molaison had both temporal lobes removed in 1953 and was unable to learn anything new, but was still conscious.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Molaison

What are you saying? I don't get it.

Replies

AdieuToLogic • last Monday at 11:48 PM

> What are you saying? I don't get it.

What I said was:

  Amnesia is not the inability to "learn from one situation 
  to the next." It is instead a condition affecting the 
  ability of memory recall.
Someone having "both temporal lobes removed" is separate and apart from amnesia AFAIK.

Now as to the case you quoted - I was unaware of it until you kindly shared it. IMHO, this supports the plausibility of having consciousness while being unable to learn anything new (as you summarized). The implications of this are fascinating to me in a detached objective sense.