Trivia Question 2 Answer

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Diane Van Deren is an American ultramarathon distance runner with a history of epilepsy in the setting of infantile febrile seizure. Accomplishments included winning the Yukon Artic 300 mile race (pulling a sled of supplies the entire distance) amongst others including some covering 100s of miles. In 1997 at the age of 37, she underwent a partial right temporal lobectomy with complete cessation of seizures. After the operation, she experienced difficulty with keeping track of time and memory difficulties. She also rose to fame as an athlete after the operation. This has led to speculation that she in fact has some degree of bilateral hippocampal damage (with seizures always starting on the right) and that post-operative memory difficulties have resulted in an improved ability to tolerate pain over long spans of distance and time. This assertion has been debated, even by Diane Van Deren herself. Regardless, the it is a story of determination and inspiration and the neuroscience connection is nonetheless thought-provoking and just plain remarkable.

Of course, the story echoes of familiarity with the more famous (in medical circles) story of 'H.M.,' an American who experienced impaired anterograde long-term declarative memory formation after bilateral medial temporal lobectomy at the age of 27 in 1953. He retained intact intellect, retrograde memory, working memory, and ability to exhibit sustain attention. H.M. has been referred to as 'probably the best known single patient in the history of neuroscience.' Later in life, he underwent CT and MRI examinations of the brain and after he passed away, he donated his brain which was closely examined histologically. For additional information see the referenced articles below.

References

Donahue B. Fixing Diane's brain. Runner's world. June 22, 2018. https://www.runnersworld.com/runners-stories/a21763474/fixing-dianes-brain/

Squire LR. The legacy of patient H.M. for neuroscience. Neuron 2009;61(1):6-9

Annese J et al. Postmortem examination of patient H.M.'s brain based on histological sectioning and digital 3D reconstruction. Nature Communications 2014;5:3122