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similar
    damage, he is aware of his problem and can describe it. The most famous patient with hippocampal
    and temporal lobe damage, known only as HM, is not so lucky (or perhaps he is luckier). Since he
    had an experimental surgery to prevent epileptic seizures, HM lives in a perpetual now, continually
    greeting people as if for the first time, even if he has spoken to them countless times before (see
    Chapter 23 ).
    The 2000 Spanish thriller Sé Quién Eres (I Know Who You Are) presents the case of Mario,
    whose memory loss stems from Korsakoff’s syndrome, a disorder associated with advanced
    alcoholism. Mario cannot recall anything that happened to him before 1977, has difficulty forming
    new memories, and is often confused. Yet his psychiatrist finds herself drawn to him. In Mario’s
    case, his memory defects result from damage to his thalamus and mammillary bodies, which is caused
    by thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency resulting from the long-term malnutrition that often accompanies
    severe alcoholism.
    A final example of memory loss in the movies comes from the animated feature Finding Nemo
    (2003). The sufferer in this case is not a human being, but a fish. Dory is friendly but has severe
    difficulty forming new memories. Like Leonard, she loses her train of thought when distracted. We
    could complain that it is unrealistic to expect much cognitive sophistication from a fish, but
    considering the egregiousness of the worst cinematic offenses, we will score this as a minor
    infraction. What is realistic in this movie is the feeling of being lost that Dory experiences as she
    finds her way through life, and the way that she can be annoying, even (and perhaps especially) to
    those close to her.
    Did you know? Schizophrenia in the movies— A Beautiful Mind
    A Beautiful Mind (2001) dramatizes the life of the mathematician John Nash, presenting
    the experience of descending into schizophrenia in great detail. The Nash character (in a
    somewhat loose adaptation of the real Nash) experiences hallucinations and starts to
    imagine causal links between unrelated events. His growing paranoia about the motives of
    those around him and his inability to critically reject these delusions gradually alienate him
    from colleagues and loved ones.
    These are classic signs of schizophrenia, a disorder that is caused by changes in the
    brain induced by disease, injury, or genetic predisposition. Schizophrenia typically strikes
    people in their late teens and early twenties and affects more men than women. As many as
    one in one hundred people experience symptoms of schizophrenia at some point in their
    lives. The hallucinations experienced by the Nash character in the movie are visual; the
    real-life Nash has experienced auditory hallucinations of a similar nature.
    While much of the movie is scientifically accurate, one significant error is that Nash is
    cured by the love of a good woman. Schizophrenia is not a romantic event; it is a physical
    disorder of the brain. Some degree of recovery is possible: patients may have periods of
    normal function interspersed with symptomatic periods, and symptoms disappear in as
    many as one in six schizophrenics. The reasons for remission, however, are currently not
    known. The error made in the movie is reminiscent of the old myth that schizophrenia is
    caused by a lack of mother love, an idea that has no support, is refuted by evidence, and
    makes mothers—and other loved ones—of schizophrenics feel guilty for no good reason.
    This brings us to a striking recurring theme in the accurate depiction of memory loss: the
    sympathetic portrayal of the sufferer. In inaccurate depictions, the victim is often regarded as a figure
    of fun or even ridicule. However, the plight of accurately portrayed sufferers is almost always
    rendered poignantly and, in the best cases, captures the feeling of what it is like to have a disorder.

    Chapter 3
    Thinking Meat: Neurons and Synapses
    In his short story