Clive Wearing suffers from a severe form of amnesia that resulted from a viral infection that attacked his brain, damaging the hippocampus and affected areas. Before his infection in the 1980s, Clive was a world-class musician and he can still play the piano brilliantly and conduct a choir but he can't remember his musical education. He can remember some aspects of life before the infection, but not others. For example, he knows that he has children from an earlier marriage, but cannot remember their names, he can recognise his second wife, Deborah.
