Wilder Graves Penfield OM CC CMG FRS[1] (January 26, 1891 – April 5, 1976) was an American-

Canadian neurosurgeon.[2] He expanded brain surgery's methods and techniques, including mapping
the functions of various regions of the brain such as the cortical homunculus. His scientific
contributions on neural stimulation expand across a variety of topics
including hallucinations, illusions, and déjà vu. Penfield devoted much of his thinking to mental
processes, including contemplation of whether there was any scientific basis for the existence of the
human soul.[2]

Contents
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 1Biography
o 1.1Early life and education
o 1.2Medical career
o 1.3Later life
 2Scientific contributions
o 2.1Neural stimulation
o 2.2Hallucinations
o 2.3Déjà vu
 3Legacy
 4Honorary degrees
 5In popular culture
 6College football coaching record
 7Notes
 8References
 9Selected books and publications
 10External links

Biography
Early life and education

Penfield at Princeton University in 1913

Penfield was born in Spokane, Washington, on January 26,[Notes 1] 1891, and spent most of his early
life in Hudson, Wisconsin.[2] He studied at Princeton University, where he was a member of Cap and
Gown Club[3] and played on the football team. After graduation in 1913, he was hired briefly as the
team coach. In 1915 he obtained a Rhodes Scholarship to Merton College, Oxford,[4] where he
studied neuropathology under Sir Charles Scott Sherrington. After one term at Merton, Penfield went
to France where he served as a dresser in a military hospital in the suburbs of Paris.[4] He was
wounded in 1916 when the ferry he was aboard, the SS Sussex, was torpedoed.[4] The following
year, he married Helen Kermott, and began studying at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine,
taking his medical degree in 1918; this was followed by a short period as a house surgeon at
the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston.[4]Returning to Merton College in 1919,[4] Penfield spent
the next two years completing his studies; during this time he met William Osler. In 1924, he worked
for five months with Pío del Río Hortega characterising the type of glial cells known
as oligodendroglia.[5] He also studied in Germany with Fedor Krause and Otfrid Foerster, as well as
in New York City.[6]

Medical career
After taking a surgical apprenticeship under Harvey Cushing, he obtained a position at
the Neurological Institute of New York, where he carried out his first solo operations to treat epilepsy.
While in New York, he met David Rockefeller, who wished to endow an institute where Penfield
could further study the surgical treatment of epilepsy. Academic politics amongst the New York
neurologists, however, prevented its establishment in New York, so, in 1928, Penfield accepted an
invitation from Sir Vincent Meredith to move to Montreal, Quebec. There, Penfield taught at McGill
University and the Royal Victoria Hospital, becoming the city's first neurosurgeon.
In 1934, Penfield, along with Dr. William Cone, founded and became the first director of the Montreal
Neurological Institute and Hospital[4] at McGill University, established with the Rockefeller funding.
That year, he also became a British subject.[4]
Penfield was unable to save his only sister, Ruth, who died from brain cancer, though complex
surgery he performed added years to her life.[7]
Penfield was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in
1950[8] and retired ten years later in 1960. 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.[Notes 2]
In 1960, the year he retired, Penfield was awarded the Lister Medal for his contributions to surgical
science.[9] He delivered the corresponding Lister Oration, "Activation of the Record of Human
Experience", at the Royal College of Surgeons of England on April 27, 1961.[10] In 1967, he was
made a Companion of the Order of Canada and, in 1994, was posthumously inducted into
the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. Much of his archival material is housed in the Osler Library at
McGill University.

Later life