The brain of Henry Molaison, the most famous amnesic and perhaps the most-studied neurological patient in history, will go under the knife starting Wednesday morning. Mr. Molaison, who died in December 2008, donated his brain to science; as part of the Brain Observatory Project, his contribution will help thousands of researchers worldwide.
Brain Project scientists plan to Webcast the slicing and preservation of brain matter on thousands of slides; extra-high-resolution digital images of the slides will eventually be posted on the open-access site. The operation is scheduled to start Wednesday mid-morning and will at least through Thursday, during roughly office hours, Pacific time. Part of this project is supported by a grant from the Dana Foundation.
On Monday, the San Diego Union-Tribune published a nice explanatory story on Mr. Molaison and the work of the Brain Project, which is based at the University of California, San Diego. I also wrote a short piece (with an audio link) about him for Dana’s 2008 annual report.
[A version of this post also is on the Dana Foundation blog. See more cool brain news there!]
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