Henry G. Molaison, an epileptic patient in the 1950s whose severe and almost total amnesia was the unexpected result of a bilateral surgical ablation of the MTL (including the hippocampus) is possibly the most well known and most-studied patient in modern neuroscience. The unfortunate outcome of his surgery became the catalyst for more than 50 years of scientific discoveries that have radically changed scientists’ basic understanding of memory function. Now, thanks to the researchers at the University of California, San Diego, scientists around the world will finally have insight into the neurological case that defined modern studies of human memory. Following the postmortem study of his brain — based on histological sectioning and digital 3D construction — scientists were able to create a 3D microscopic model of his entire brain. In order to create the model, H.M.’s brain was dissected into 2,401 thin tissue slices that were preserved cryogenically. The researchers then collected and archived a series of digital images that corresponded to each tissue section. The level of sampling and image quality provided by this study represents a significant advance over the MRI scans performed on H.M. when he was still alive. The digitized and histological slides of H.M.’s brain can be viewed at the cellular level online using Google maps, a level of detail not seen before. To read more about this study, click here.