Shadowing Practice: What happens when you remove the hippocampus? - Sam Kean - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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On September 1, 1953, William Scoville used a hand crank and a cheap drill saw to bore into a young man's skull,
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cutting away vital pieces of his brain and sucking them out through a metal tube.
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But this wasn't a scene from a horror film or a gruesome police report.
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Dr. Scoville was one of the most renowned neurosurgeons of his time,
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The young man was Henry Malayason,
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the famous patient known as H.M.,
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whose case provided amazing insights into how our brains work.
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As a boy, Henry had cracked his skull in an accident and soon began having seizures,
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blacking out, and losing control of bodily functions.
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After enduring years of frequent episodes and even dropping out of high school,
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the desperate young man had turned to Dr. Scoville,
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a daredevil known for risky surgeries.
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Partial lobotomies had been used for decades to treat mental patients,
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based on the notion that mental functions were strictly localized to corresponding brain areas.
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Having successfully used them to reduce seizures in psychotics,
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Scoville decided to remove H.M.'s hippocampus,
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a part of the limbic system that was associated with emotion,
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but whose function was unknown.
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At first glance, the operation had succeeded.
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H.M.'s seizures virtually disappeared, with no change in personality,
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and his IQ even improved.
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But there was one problem.
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His memory was shot.
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Besides losing most of his memories from the previous decade, H.M was unable to form new ones,
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forgetting what day it was,
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repeating comments, and even eating multiple meals in a row.
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When Scoville informed another expert,
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Wilder Penfield, of the results,
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he sent a PhD student named Brenda Milner to study HM at his parents' home,
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where he now spent his days doing odd chores and watching classic movies for the first time,
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over and over.
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What she discovered through a series of tests and interviews didn't just contribute greatly to the study of memory.
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It redefined what memory even meant.
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One of Milner's findings shed light on the obvious fact that although H.M couldn't form new memories,
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he still retained information long enough from moment to moment to finish a sentence or find the bathroom.
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When Milner gave him a random number,
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he managed to remember it for 15 minutes by repeating it to himself constantly.
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But only five minutes later,
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he forgot the test had even taken place.
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Neuroscientists had thought of memory as monolithic,
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all of it essentially the same,
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and stored throughout the brain.
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Milner's results were not only the first clue for the now familiar distinction between short-term and long-term memory,
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but showed that each uses different brain regions.
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We now know that memory formation involves several steps.
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After immediate sensory data is temporarily transcribed by neurons in the cortex,
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it travels to the hippocampus,
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where special proteins work to strengthen the cortical-synaptic connections.
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If the experience was strong enough,
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or we recall it periodically in the first few days,
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the hippocampus then transfers the memory back to the cortex for permanent storage.
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HM's mind could form the initial impressions,
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but without a hippocampus to perform this memory consolidation,
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they eroded like messages scrawled in sand.
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But this was not the only memory distinction Milner found.
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In a now-famous experiment,
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she asked H.M to trace a third star in the narrow space between the outlines of two concentric ones,
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while he could only see his paper and pencil through a mirror.
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Like anyone else performing such an awkward task for the first time, he did horribly.
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But surprisingly, he improved over repeated trials,
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even though he had no memory of previous attempts.
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His unconscious motor centers remembered remembered what the conscious mind had forgotten.
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What Milner had discovered was that the declarative memory of names,
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dates, and facts is different from the procedural memory of riding a bicycle or signing your name.
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And we now know that procedural memory relies more on the basal ganglia and cerebellum,
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structures that were intact in H.M.'s brain.
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This distinction between knowing that and knowing how has underpinned all memory research since.
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H.M died at the age of 82 after a mostly peaceful life in a nursing home.
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Over the years, he had been examined by more than 100 neuroscientists,
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making his the most studied mind in history.
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Upon his death, his brain was preserved and scanned before being cut into over 2,000 individual slices
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and photographed to form a digital map down to the level of individual neurons,
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all in a live broadcast watched by 400,000 people.
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Though H.M spent most of his life forgetting things,
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he and his contributions to our understanding of memory will be remembered for generations to come.
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Thank you.

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About This Lesson

In this lesson, you will practice your English speaking skills by engaging with a fascinating discussion about memory and neuroscience, featured in the video titled "What happens when you remove the hippocampus?" by Sam Kean. You will explore how memories are formed, the distinction between different types of memory, and the profound implications of a unique case study on a patient known as H.M. By participating in this lesson, you will enhance your listening comprehension and pronunciation abilities, allowing you to communicate more effectively in English.

Key Vocabulary & Phrases

  • Hippocampus - a critical part of the brain associated with memory and emotion.
  • Neurosurgeon - a doctor specializing in surgery for the nervous system, especially the brain.
  • Memory consolidation - the process by which short-term memories are transformed into long-term storage.
  • Declarative memory - the type of memory that involves facts and information.
  • Procedural memory - the memory for the performance of particular types of actions.
  • Seizures - sudden, uncontrolled electrical disturbances in the brain.
  • Neuroscientists - researchers who study the brain and the nervous system.
  • Concentric - circles that share a common center but have different radii.

Practice Tips

To maximize your learning experience, consider using a shadowing app to practice alongside the video. Shadowing is a powerful technique where you listen to a speaker and immediately mimic their speech patterns, tone, and style. As you watch Sam Kean’s video at your own pace, pause after each sentence to repeat it out loud. This will help you to internalize the rhythm and intonation of English, enhancing your overall fluency.

Given the reflective and informative tone of the video, aim for clarity in your voice as you practice shadowing. Keep your pace aligned with the speaker but feel free to slow down if necessary. Focus on pronouncing the key vocabulary items listed above correctly, as they are integral to the subject matter. By integrating practices like shadowspeak into your routine, you will not only improve your vocabulary but also build confidence in your conversational skills.

Finally, remember to revisit the video several times. Each review will deepen your understanding and provide new insights into how to express complex ideas in English. This approach will help you learn English with YouTube effectively and enjoyably.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

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