Wilder Penfield

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Wilder Penfield

OM CC CMG FRS

Penfield in 1958

Born Wilder Graves Penfield

January 26, 1891

Spokane, Washington, United States

Died April 5, 1976 (aged 85)

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

 Princeton University
Alma mater
 Merton College, Oxford
  Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Known for  Prompting memory recall during surgery

via temporal lobe stimulation

 Treatment of epilepsy by surgery

 Montreal procedure

 Penfield dissector

Awards  FRS (1943)[1]

 Flavelle Medal (1951)

Scientific career

Fields Neurosurgery

Institutions  Montreal Neurological Institute

 McGill University

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

 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

 4Eponyms
  5Honorary degrees

 6In popular culture

 7College football coaching record

 8References

 9Selected books and publications

o 9.1Books

o 9.2Articles

 10External links

Biography[edit]
Early life and education[edit]

Penfield at Princeton University in 1913

Born in Spokane, Washington, on January 26, 1891, Penfield spent most of his early
life in Hudson, Wisconsin.[1][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.[5] 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, attaining 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 Sir William Osler. In 1924, he worked
for five months with Pío del Río Hortega characterising the type of glial cells known
as oligodendroglia.[6] He also studied in Germany with Fedor Krause and Otfrid
Foerster, as well as in New York City.[7][8][9] In 1928, during the 6 months he spent in
Germany with Dr. Foerster, he learned how to use local anesthesia to keep brain
surgery patients awake.[10][11][12]