Clive Wearing facts for kids

Clive Wearing (born 11 May 1938) is a British former musicologist, conductor, tenor singer, and pianist. In 1985, he developed a rare memory condition called anterograde and retrograde amnesia. This means he cannot create new memories and struggles to remember things from his past. He often feels like he has just woken up from a coma.

A Talented Musician

Clive Wearing was a very talented musician. He was a musicologist, which is someone who studies music. He was also a conductor, leading musical groups, and a keyboard player. For many years, he sang as a tenor at Westminster Cathedral. He also worked as a chorus master, preparing choirs for performances at places like Covent Garden in London.

In 1968, he started his own choir called the Europa Singers of London. This group focused on music from the 17th, 18th, and 20th centuries. They were praised for their performances, especially of a famous piece called Vespro della Beata Vergine. The Europa Singers also performed for operas, including Mozart's Marriage of Figaro.

Clive also organized The London Lassus Ensemble. In 1982, he planned the London Lassus Festival. This event celebrated the 450th anniversary of the composer Orlande de Lassus.

While working at the BBC, Clive was in charge of much of the music for BBC Radio 3 on a special day: 29 July 1981. This was the day of the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer. For this occasion, he recreated a Bavarian royal wedding from 1568. He used old instruments and carefully researched music by composers like Lassus and Palestrina.

Understanding Amnesia

On 27 March 1985, Clive Wearing became very ill. He caught a virus called herpesviral encephalitis. This virus attacked his central nervous system, especially parts of his brain important for memory. Since then, he has had a severe case of total amnesia.

How His Memory Works

Clive's brain damage affects his hippocampus. This part of the brain is like a transfer station for memories. It moves information from short-term to long-term memory. Because his hippocampus is damaged, Clive cannot form new lasting memories. His memory for events lasts only about seven to thirty seconds.

He lives in a constant state of "waking up." Every 20 seconds or so, his consciousness seems to "restart." He often believes he has just woken from a coma. If you talk to him, he can answer questions for a short time. But he quickly forgets the conversation and gets upset if asked about his condition.

His Daily Life

Clive remembers very little from before 1985. He knows he has children from a previous marriage, but he cannot remember their names. However, his love for his second wife, Deborah, is still very strong. He married her the year before he got sick. Every time they meet, he greets her with great joy. He thinks he hasn't seen her in years, or even that they have never met, even if she just left the room for a moment.

His carers gave him a diary to write in. He would fill pages with entries like:

8:31 AM: Now I am really, completely awake. (1st Time)
9:06 AM: Now I am perfectly, overwhelmingly awake. (1st Time)
9:34 AM: Now I am superlatively, actually awake. (1st Time)

He would often cross out parts of his entries. This is because he would forget writing them within minutes. He didn't know how the entries got there, even though he recognized his own handwriting. He kept writing these entries for more than 20 years, always believing it was the "first time" he was waking up.

Music and Memory

Even with his severe memory loss, Clive Wearing can still do amazing things. He can play complex piano and organ pieces. He can also read music he has never seen before (sight-reading) and conduct a choir. He doesn't remember specific songs by name. He also has very limited recall of his past musical knowledge. Yet, his ability to perform music remains. This shows that some types of memory, like procedural memory (memory for skills), can stay even when other memories are lost.

In a documentary from 2005, Clive spoke about his condition:

You're the first human beings I've seen, the three of you. Two men and one lady. The first ... people I've seen since I've been ill. No difference between day and night. No thoughts at all. No dreams. Day and night, the same – blank. Precisely like death.

Is it very hard?

No. It's exactly the same as being dead, which is not difficult, is it? To be dead is easy. You don't do anything at all. You can't do anything, when you are dead. It's been the same. Exactly.

Do you miss your old life?

Yes. But I've never been conscious to think that. So I've never been bored or upset. I've never been anything at all, it's exactly the same as death. No dreams even. Day and night, the same.

When you miss your old life, you say, 'Yes, I miss my old life', what do you miss?

The fact that I was a musician. And in love.

Learning More About Clive

Clive Wearing's story has been shared in many ways. His wife, Deborah, wrote a book about his condition called Forever Today.

His case was also shown in a 1986 documentary called Equinox: Prisoner of Consciousness. Later, in 2005, an updated story appeared in the ITV documentary The Man with the 7 Second Memory.

He was also featured in the PBS series The Mind in 1988 and a follow-up episode in 1998. His story was used in the 2006 documentary series Time to show how losing one's sense of time affects life.

His case has also been discussed on radio shows like Radio Lab and in books by famous neurologists like Oliver Sacks (Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain) and Eric Kandel.

See also

Other neurological trauma/damage cases

• Henry Molaison (Patient H.M.)
• Phineas Gage
• Kent Cochrane (Patient K.C)
• Scott Bolzan
• S.M. (patient)

Other areas

• Anterograde amnesia
• Cognitive neuropsychology