Amnesiac cellist astounds doctors with musical memory | Science | The Guardian
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/nov/13/amnesiac-cellist-has-musical-memory
He can hardly remember a thing. He has no memory of any personal or professional events," Carsten Finke, a neurologist at Charité university hospital in Berlin, told the Guardian. “He is living in the moment, more or less. He has lost his whole life.”
Doctors made their discovery when they tested PM’s ability to recall musical information and found he could identify the scales, rhythms and intervals of pieces they played him. The man went on to score normally on a standard test for musical memory.
But it was later tests that surprised doctors most, when the cellist showed he could learn new pieces of music, even though he failed to remember simple information, such as the layout of his flat, who his doctors were and what medicines he should take.
Etonnant...