In 1900, the Russian neurologist Vladimir Bekhterev described two patients with a significant memory deficit who, on autopsy, were found to have softening of hippocampal and adjacent cortical tissue;[1] and, in 1957, Scoville and Milner reported memory loss in a series of patients subsequent to their removal of the patients' medial temporal lobes.[2] Thanks to these observations and a great deal of subsequent research, it is now broadly accepted that the hippocampal formation plays a role in some aspects of memory.[3]