The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales

By Oliver Sacks, M.D.

Assignment, Dr. Timothy J. Donahue, VCU

 

​You are assigned to read 8 case studies from this best seller book by Oliver Sacks.  Dr. Sacks was a very famous neurologist who spent a lifetime studying interesting neurological disorders. This book contains 24 case studies of people with fascinating neurological disorders.  You are going to read and review 8 of the cases and write a synopsis of each case. The cases you read/review should be directly related to sensory or perceptual problems(many of the cases are but some are not). The book is divided into four parts, with each part containing several cases that share similar characteristics.

 

Part I: Losses – deals with people that have lost an ability to do something.

Part II: Excesses – deals with people who have too much of something.

Part III: Transports – deals with people who live a different perceptual world.

Part IV: The World of the Simple – deals with people who are cognitively or intellectually impaired yet have very unusual talents or abilities.

 

Directions:  You are to pick any eight (8) cases, your choice, so long as each case directly relates to sensory/perceptual abilities or difficulties.

 

Do not pick the follow listed cases as they do not pertain to sensation/perception:

 

 

 

       The first page should be the standard title page used for this course; a sample is on the first page of our Canvas site.  Then, starting on the second page, you are to type a summary of each case (see sample page 3). Make sure you INCLUDE ALL OF THE FOLLOWING IN EACH SUMMARY. If the information is not given for each topic, say so and maybe draw some conclusions of your own, or speculate as to the missing information, or try an internet search.

 

 

Important: Some of the cases have a “Postscript” which might contain information about the case.  Read the postscript.

 

 

Format: (See sample on next page)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Warning about Plagiarism.   Remember there is an automatic verification program on Canvas that will compare your submission to everything on the internet (and other student papers) to look for matches. Do your own work.  Do not cut and paste anything from anywhere.  While you are free to rely on other authoritative sources go help you understand the cases and some of the terms or concepts, this is your analysis and should be written by you in your own words.  This is not a research paper, but should you want to use an outside source in your synopsis, reference them correctly using APA style. Understand that if I suspect any portion of your paper is not your work, you will be notified of my concerns and your paper will be given to the VCU Office of Academic Integrity for an investigation.

 

[Sample of a synopsis.  Skip a line between each segment. Everything should be explained in complete sentences. Use bold headings non-bold print for your answers.] 

 

The Present Moment: Clive Wearing (The name of the case should appear first and be underlined)

 

Information on the patient.   Clive Wearing (born 1938) is a British musicologist, who prior to his illness, was one of Europe’s most famous musical choir conductors.  He was the world’s leading experts on Renaissance choir music.  Tragically, in 1985 he contacted viral encephalitis which ended his career and left him with an unusual memory disorder in which he has lost his ability to connect his present awareness to his past or his future.  At the time of the story he was married and had a daughter.

 

Name of the disorder. Clive suffers from severe anterograde amnesia and retrograde amnesia.  

 

Cause of the disorder.  Clive contacted a severe case of viral encephalitis which is a disorder of the nervous system; specifically, it resulted in a very high fever for several days and swelling of the linings of the brain and spinal cord.  The high fever killed neurons in various parts of Clive’s brain.

 

Specific area(s) of the brain associated with the disorder.  In Clive’s case, the fever resulting from the virus damaged both his left and right hippocampus and did damage to parts of his left and right frontal lobes.

 

Sensory/Perceptual abilities or deficits present.  Clive was left with severe anterograde amnesia which is an inability to form new memories – an inability to move memories from short-term memory into long-term memory.  He also suffers from retrograde amnesia, which is an inability to recall events up to the present moment.  This left Clive in a very unusual situation; he is perpetually stuck in the present moment.  He always feels as if he has just “woken up.”  He has a very narrow window of consciousness, of about a couple of minutes, and then his awareness will fade.  Interestingly, he maintains his memory of music, how to play and direct and he remembers his identity and his wife.  But as soon as he perceives something it begins to fade from his consciousness, thus leaving him adrift in a moment-to-moment consciousness.  This impacts his perception of time, especially his relationship to time.  He exists in a “time vacuum” and his attentional systems are obviously compromised.  Perceptually, while he is in the present moment, he is not able to (at the same time) be conscious of the past nor project himself into the future. 

 

Treatment.  There is no treatment for Clive’s condition.  He cannot function by himself and would be lost if he were to try to return to work.  He lives in a long-term adult care center where he spends most of his time interacting with the staff, playing the piano, and playing cards.  

 

What happened to the patient? Clive continues to reside in the long-term care center.  His case has become very famous with psychologists making numerous documentaries of his case.  

 

Other interesting or unusual observations.  I found it interesting that Clive did not lose all his memory.  His memory of how to play music is intact, his memory of his wife is fine, and he has all his other memories.  It is just that he cannot move new information into long-term memory.  Also, his other faculties such as language, intellect, and daily routines such as eating and caring for himself are normal.  

 

Implications for sensation and perception.  This case reveals how our sense of time is impacted by attention and memory. This case also shows the connection between memory and consciousness, and that consciousness is more than just a moment-to-moment cognitive experience, it is an ability of the brain to be aware of the past, present and future all at once.  This gives new meaning to what we understand consciousness to be, adding a temporal quality (past, present, and future) to it as well as linking it to memories of things past and expectations of events yet to happen.  Perhaps this is one of the things that separate human conscious from all other species.  I doubt if animals have this three-dimensional temporal quality to their awareness of the world.  This three-dimensional temporal quality is also critical for a fuller understanding of our sense of “self” and where we happen to be at any given moment.  How the mind weaves together a sense of the past, present and future into our moment-to-moment experience is a fascinating dimension of the human brain and mind.

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