The Septembere 24 New Yorker contains an article by Oliver Sacks that
may be of great interest to this List.  It is about the case of Clive
Wearing, a musician and musicologist who suffers a particularly severe
kind of amnesia.  Mr.  Wearing cannot retain memories for more than a
few seconds, so that his whole world is a succession of unrelated
surprises, without coherence, without a history.

Nonetheless, he retains the ability to carry out many processes, which
include self-care, using the telephone, speaking, reading, and writing
in several languages, and ...MUSIC.  As Sacks reports: "Clive cannot
retain any memory of passing events or experience and, in addition, has
lost most of the memories of events and experiences *preceding* his
encephalitis--- how, then, does he retain his remarkable knowledge of
music, his ability to sight-read, play the piano and organ, sing, and
conduct a choir in the masterly way he did before he became ill?"

The article is fascinating and frightening, like many of Sacks' inquiries.
It can be accessed at:

   http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/09/24/070924fa_fact_sacks

Jon Gallant
Department of Gnome Sciences
University of Washington

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