Henry Gustav Molaison (H.M.) was recognized as the most important patient in the history of brain science by participating in hundreds of brain studies after the radical change happened to his life after the surgery in his brain.
H.M. has suffered from seizures and convulsions since he was 9 years old, after being hit by a bicycle rider. 18 years after the bicycle accident, H.M. and his doctor decided to remove two finger-shaped slivers called "hippocampus". H.M's seizures abated, but his memories went through abrupt changes. Some part of H.M.'s memory stayed intact, but he failed in converting short term memory to long term memory. For example, H.M. could talk and have a good time with a doctor, just that the next day he would never remember the doctor and what they did the day before. 
At the time, scientists didn't believe that memory was dependent on any one neural organ or region. But later scientists saw that there were at least two systems in brain for creating new memories. One, known as declarative memory, records names, faces and new experiences and stores them until they are consciously retrieved. This system depends on the function of medial temporal areas, particularly an organ called the hippocampus. Apparently H.M. got damaged in the hippocampus, and that was why he couldn't convert short term memory to long term memory.
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