Wilder Penfield was an American-born Canadian neurosurgeon whose research contributed to the advancement of studies of nervous tissue, epilepsy, and human memory. His pioneering scientific work spanned the first half of the 20th century and his contributions to the study of neurology and the development of neurosurgery are invaluable..
Penfield, along with other eminent researchers, helped develop a surgical treatment for epilepsy and then used the results to investigate the structure of the brain and its functional organization. He was one of the biggest promoters of the Montreal Institute of Neurology at McGill University, where he worked most of his life..
He received numerous awards and distinctions for his scientific work, including the Order of Canada and the Legion of Honor. He is the second Canadian to be recognized with the Order of Merit of Great Britain. While living in Canada, he was often called "the greatest living Canadian.".
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Wilder Graves Penfield was born in Spokane, Washington, on January 26, 1891, where he lived until he was 8 years old. He came from a Presbyterian family. His parents were Charles Samuel Penfield, a successful physician who later failed; and Jean Penfield, an educator.
When his parents divorced in 1899, Wilder moved with his mother to Hudson, Wisconsin, to his maternal grandparents' home along with his two older brothers. In this city, Jean Penfield established the Galahad School for Boys.
With this small private institution, his mother hoped to be able to offer Wilder the preparatory education necessary for a Rhodes scholarship..
It was a scholarship with a considerable sum of money, which was awarded to students with high intellectual and athletic abilities.
He was thirteen years old and his mother was determined that Wilder would get the scholarship, so she pushed him to excel in both areas. After graduating from high school in 1909, Wilder went to study at Princeton University.
While there he became a member and later coach of the college football team. He even volunteered to teach Sunday School..
As he himself stated in his autobiography, despite the fact that he did not want to be a doctor like his father, he ended up taking an interest in this discipline.
He was inspired and encouraged to study medicine by his Princeton Biology professor, Edward Conklin, as well as a visit he made to the operating room gallery of New York Presbyterian Hospital.
In 1914 he won a Rhodes Scholarship, but did not immediately begin his studies at Oxford until early 1915. His study plans were delayed due to the outbreak of World War I in Europe..
He married his fiancee Helen Kermott and went to continue his studies in England. He studied Clinical Medicine with Dr. William Osler, and Neurology with Dr. Charles Sherrington.
When he volunteered at a Red Cross hospital in Paris, the Nazis bombed the ferry in which he was traveling across the English Channel..
Wilder was injured, so Professor Osler invited him to stay at his home while he recovered from his injuries..
In 1919, Penfield participated in postgraduate research in Sherrington's laboratory. The research was about the rigidity of the brainless, as well as the microscopic structure of the nervous system and the reflex acts in the feet of cats..
After studying at Oxford, Wilder completed his doctoral studies at Johns Hopkins University. During his training period, he not only studied at the best universities, but also came into contact with the best neurosurgeons of the time.
At Peter Brent Brigham Hospital in Boston, he was under the supervision of neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing. He then practiced surgery at New York Presbyterian Hospital for seven years. Later he traveled to Spain to learn about the nerve cell staining developed by the neurologist Ramón y Cajal.
In Germany he studied with neurologist and neurosurgeon Ottfrid Foerster. In his laboratory he investigated the microscopic details of brain healing and the healing of tissue samples. Later, Wilder used the surgical techniques applied by Foster to treat his own patients..
Wilder returned to New York in the hope that he could apply the new techniques to examine the scar tissue of patients with post-traumatic epilepsy and discover its cause..
While there with researcher William Cone, he received from the Rockefeller family the necessary funds to found the neurocytology laboratory of the Presbyterian Hospital..
The academic politics of New York prevented him from establishing his own institute to study epilepsy. In 1927 he was invited by the Professor of Surgery and surgical chief of McGill University, Edward Archibald, to teach and take charge of the Neurosurgery department of the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH) in Montreal..
Penfield only made it a condition to have adequate facilities to install a neurocytology laboratory, in addition to hiring Bill Cone as head of the new neurosurgery clinic and to be able to resort to neurological cases from both the RVH and the Montreal General Hospital.
Before traveling to Canada in 1928 with his wife and four children, Wilder interned with Professor Foerster in Breslau, Germany. While in Canada he acquired citizenship to be able to work.
With the support of McGill University and the RVH, and funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, he was finally able to establish the Montreal Neurosurgery Institute (MNI) in 1934..
After a decade of fundraising and seeking financial support. He ran the institution until 1960, when he decided to retire.
Penfield died on April 5, 1976 at the age of 85, just as he finished his work. No man alone (No Man Alone), a partial autobiography along with the creation story of the MNI.
Wilder Penfield's research allowed great advances in the treatment of neurological diseases.
His sister's struggle with epilepsy spurred Penfield to study the causes of this disease and its possible cure. His studies led to a new surgical approach that is now known as the Montreal procedure..
It consists of the use of local anesthesia during the patient's operation, in which a part of the skull is removed in order to access the brain. The patient remains conscious, which allows identifying which part of the body was stimulated by each area of the brain.
This allowed Penfield to locate the site of epilepsy-related seizures and remove the abnormal tissue..
Taking advantage of these observations, Penfield mapped the cerebral cortex indicating where each sensory response was represented..
For example, when stimulating the back of the brain, the patient claimed to see flashes of light. When stimulating the lateral part of the brain, then I would hear buzzing or feel tingling on the skin. But if he did it in another region, the patient's reflex action was to move some part of the body.
He also managed to determine that each part of the body is assigned a region in the cortex, depending on its degree of sensitivity. Each of these brain regions controls the sensation and movement of the body..
He found that current stimulation anywhere in the cerebral cortex could elicit responses of one kind or another.
However, it determined that only when it stimulated the temporal lobe of the brain did it generate meaningful and integrated responses, among these memory responses, including language, movement, sound and color..
Currently, this invasive method is not used to study brain stimuli and body responses, but CT scans.
Wilder Penfield's studies also made important contributions to the knowledge of the function of the temporal lobe and auditory anatomy..
Through his work it was possible to locate some of the auditory areas of the cortex. However, these areas are not yet fully delineated..
He was able to define what role the hippocampus and the lateral temporal cortex play in memory functions. Based on his findings, he postulated the existence of the central brain system. On this basis he explained diffuse bilateral seizure activity and the mechanism of consciousness.
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