Wilder Penfield

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Wilder Penfield
CMG FRS
Penfield in 1958
Born
Wilder Graves Penfield

(1891-01-26)January 26, 1891
Spokane, Washington, United States
DiedApril 5, 1976(1976-04-05) (aged 85)
Montreal
, Quebec, Canada
Alma mater
Known for
  • Prompting memory recall during surgery via temporal lobe stimulation
  • Treatment of epilepsy by surgery
  • Montreal procedure
  • Penfield dissector
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsNeurosurgery
Institutions
Notable studentsLaurence Levy[2]

Wilder Graves Penfield

mental processes, including contemplation of whether there was any scientific basis for the existence of the human soul.[3]

Biography

Early life and education

Penfield at Princeton University in 1913

Born in

oligodendroglia.[7] He also studied in Germany with Fedor Krause and Otfrid Foerster, as well as in New York City.[8][9][10] In 1928, during the 6 months he spent in Germany with Foerster, he learned how to use local anesthesia to keep brain surgery patients awake.[11][12][13]

Medical career

After taking a surgical apprenticeship under

Royal Victoria Hospital
, becoming the city's first neurosurgeon.

Penfield at Montreal Neurological Institute in 1934

In 1934, Penfield, along with William Cone,[14] founded and became the first director of the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital[5] at McGill University, established with the Rockefeller funding. That year, he also became a British subject (as part of the British Empire, there was no distinct Canadian citizenship until 1947).[5]

Penfield was unable to save his only sister, Ruth, who died from brain cancer, though complex surgery he performed added years to her life.[15]

Penfield was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1950[16] and retired ten years later in 1960. He was a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.[17][18] He was appointed to the Order of Merit in the 1953 New Year Honours list. He turned his attention to writing, producing a novel as well as his autobiography No Man Alone. A later biography, Something Hidden, was written by his grandson Jefferson Lewis.[19]

In 1960, the year he retired, Penfield was awarded the

Osler Library at McGill University.[22]

Later life

In his later years, Penfield dedicated himself to the public interest, particularly in support of university education. With his friends

Governor-General Georges Vanier and Pauline Vanier, he co-founded the Vanier Institute of the Family "to promote and guide education in the home – man's first classroom."[23] He was also an early proponent of childhood bilingualism.[24]

Penfield died on April 5, 1976, of

abdominal cancer at Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal.[25] He and his wife, Helen, had their ashes buried on the family property in East Bolton (Bolton-Est), Quebec on Sargent's Bay, Lake Memphremagog.[26]

Scientific contributions

The Wilder Penfield Pavilion at McGill University

Neural stimulation

Penfield was a groundbreaking researcher and original surgeon. His development of a neurosurgical technique using an instrument known as the Penfield dissector, which produced the least injurious

side-effects
of the surgery.

This technique also allowed him to create maps of the

somatotopy
of the motor cortex. From these results he developed his cortical homunculus map, which is how the brain sees the body from an inside perspective.

Penfield reported[27] that stimulation of the temporal lobes could lead to vivid recall of memories. Oversimplified in popular psychology publications, including the best-selling I'm OK – You're OK, this seeded the common misconception that the brain continuously "records" experiences in perfect detail, although these memories are not available to conscious recall. Reported episodes of recall occurred in less than five percent of his patients, though these results have been replicated by modern surgeons.[28][29] Penfield's hypothesis on this subject was revised in 1970.[30]

Hallucinations

Penfield's scientific contributions go past the

temporal cortices.[31] Of his 520 patients, 40 reported that while their temporal lobe was stimulated with an electrode they would recall dreams, smells, visual and auditory hallucinations, as well as out-of-body experiences.[32] In his studies, Penfield found that when the temporal lobe was stimulated it produced a combination of hallucinations, dream, and memory recollection.[33] These experiences would only last as long as the electrode stimulations were present on the cortex, and in some cases when patient experienced hallucinatory experiences that evoked certain smells, sensations of flashing light, stroking the back of their hand, and many others. Other stimulations had patients experiencing déjà vu, fear, loneliness, and strangeness. Certain areas of patients' temporal lobes were stimulated with an electrode in order to experience memories. Penfield called these perceptual illusions (physical hallucinations) interpretive responses. According to Penfield, when the temporal lobe was stimulated there were two types of perceptions experienced by patients:[34]

  1. Experential experience – where the patient recorded hearing a song, or seeing a flash of light.
  2. Strip experience – The recall seems familiar to the patient and comes from the patient's past even though the patient may not be able to pinpoint the exact occasion. The recall of a memory or memories could reinforce the emotion tied to the experience.

Penfield stressed that the "things that have been recorded are the things which once came within the spot-light of attention".[34] Penfield had over 25 years of research using electrical stimulation to produce experiential hallucinations. His conclusions show that patients experience a range of hallucinations from simple to complex. They also show that hallucinations can be stimulated.[35]

Déjà vu

Penfield's expansion of the interpretive cortex includes the phenomenon of déjà vu.[36] Déjà vu is the sensation that an experience a person is having has previously been experienced. Déjà vu is typically experienced by people between the ages of 15 and 25, and affects approximately 60-70% of the population. It is thought to be a mismatch of the sensory input people receive and the system in which the brain recalls memory. Another thought on the cause of déjà vu is that there is a malfunction in the brain's short- and long-term memory systems where memories become stored in incorrect systems.[37] There are several ways one can recognize familiar experiences – by mentally retrieving memories of a previous experience, or by having a feeling that an experience has occurred when it actually has not. Déjà vu is having that feeling of familiarity in a situation that is completely new. Memory is good at being familiar with objects, however it does not do well with the configuration or organization of objects. Déjà vu is an extreme reaction to the mind telling an individual that they are having a familiar experience.[38] Déjà vu is thought to be a consistent phenomenon. However, it has been associated with epilepsy, and with multiple psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and anxiety,[39] but there has not been a clear, frequent diagnostic correlation between déjà vu and neurological or psychiatric disorders, except with patients that have a possibility of being epileptic.[40] Temporal lobe epilepsy affects the hippocampus. Patients that have this medical diagnosis are said to have a misfiring of the brain's neurons. The neurons transmit at random which results in the false sense of experiencing a familiar situation that had previously been experienced.[41] Different types of déjà vu are difficult to pinpoint because researchers who have studied déjà vu have developed their own categories and differentiations. On a broad perspective of research that is available, déjà vu can be divided into two categories: associative déjà vu and biological déjà vu. Associative déjà vu is typically experienced by normal, healthy individuals who experience things with the senses that can be associated to other experiences or past events. Biological déjà vu occurs in individuals who have temporal lobe epilepsy.[42] Their experience of déjà vu occurs usually just before they experience a seizure.[43] Recent research is looking at the new occurrence of chronic déjà vu. Chronic déjà vu is when an individual is experiencing a constant state of déjà vu. Failure of the temporal lobe is thought to be the cause of this phenomenon because the circuits that connect to memories get stuck in an active state, and create memories that never happened.[43]

Global policy

He was one of the signatories of the agreement to convene a convention for drafting a

Constitution for the Federation of Earth.[46]

Legacy

Federal marker to Penfield at the McGill University building that bears his name

Penfield was designated a National Historic Person in 1988 by the government of Canada. As such, a federal historical marker from the national Historic Sites & Monuments Board and Parks Canada was erected, located at a building that bears his name on University Street, part of the McGill University campus in Montreal.

A postage stamp honouring Penfield was issued by Canada Post on March 15, 1991.

Avenue du Docteur-Penfield (45°30′01″N 73°34′59″W / 45.500342°N 73.583103°W / 45.500342; -73.583103), on the slope of Mount Royal in Montreal, was named in Penfield's honour on October 5, 1978. Part of this avenue borders McGill University's campus and intersects with Promenade Sir-William-Osler – meaning medical historians and the like may amuse themselves by arranging to "meet at Osler and Penfield".

A portrait of Wilder Penfield hangs in Rhodes House at the University of Oxford, England. Penfield was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) of the United Kingdom in 1943.[1]

In honour of Wilder Graves Penfield's contribution to the public sector in Montreal, notably alongside his interest in further developing education, Wilder Penfield Elementary School was also established as part of the Lester B. Pearson School Board.

Penfield building, one of John Abbott College's ten buildings, also bears the name of the famous neurosurgeon.

Penfield was the subject of a

Google doodle on January 26, 2018, marking the 127th anniversary of his birth. The doodle appeared on the Google homepage in selected countries on five continents.[47][48]

Penfield Children's Center In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is named for Dr. Penfield for his advocacy of early intervention for children with developmental delays and disabilities.[49]

Eponyms

Honorary degrees

Penfield was awarded many honorary degrees in recognition of his medical career. These include:

State/Province Date School Degree
 New Jersey 1939 Princeton University Doctor of Science (D.Sc.)[52]
 British Columbia 30 October 1946 University of British Columbia Doctor of Science (D.Sc.)[53]
 Saskatchewan 29 September 1959 University of Saskatchewan
Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[54]
 Ontario 1953 University of Toronto Doctor of Science (D.Sc.)[55]
 England 1953 University of Oxford[56] ---
 Manitoba 1955 University of Manitoba Doctor of Science (D.Sc.)[57]
 Ontario 1957 Queen's University
Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[58]
 Quebec 6 October 1960 McGill University Doctor of Science (D.Sc.)[59]
 Quebec / Bishop's University Honorary Graduate [60]
 Ontario May 1962 McMaster University Doctor of Science (D.Sc.)[61]
 Alberta 29 March 1967 University of Calgary[62] ---
 Ontario 16 May 1970 Royal Military College of Canada Doctor of Science (D.Sc.)[63]
 Ontario 21 September 1972 University of Western Ontario Doctor of Science (D.Sc.)[64]

In popular culture

College football coaching record

Between his graduation from Princeton and his studies at Oxford, Penfield served as Princeton's head football coach for one season.

Year Team Overall Conference Standing Bowl/playoffs
Princeton Tigers (Independent) (1914)
1914 Princeton 5–2–1
Princeton: 5–2–1
Total: 5–2–1

References

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  18. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 24 February 2023.
  19. ^ Charles Godfrey, "With Bible reading, hard work and obeying the Golden Rule, Penfield could do anything". The Globe and Mail, October 31, 1981.
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  71. ^ Resnick, Brian (26 January 2018). "Wilder Penfield redrew the map of the brain - by opening the heads of living patients". Vox. Retrieved 12 January 2019.

Selected books and publications

Books

Articles

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wilder Penfield.
Archives at
LocationOsler Library of the History of Medicine
IdentifiersP142 Edit this on Wikidata
SourceWilder Penfield fonds
How to use archival material
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