Wilder Graves Penfield, OM, CC, CMG, FRS (January 25/26, 1891 – April 5, 1976) was an American born Canadian neurosurgeon. During his life he was called "the greatest living Canadian". He devoted much thinking to the functionings of the mind, and continued until his death to contemplate whether there was any scientific basis for the existence of the human soul.
Penfield was a groundbreaking researcher and highly original surgeon. With his colleag...
more
Wilder Graves Penfield, OM, CC, CMG, FRS (January 25/26, 1891 – April 5, 1976) was an American born Canadian neurosurgeon. During his life he was called "the greatest living Canadian". He devoted much thinking to the functionings of the mind, and continued until his death to contemplate whether there was any scientific basis for the existence of the human soul.
Penfield was a groundbreaking researcher and highly original surgeon. With his colleague, Herbert Jasper, he invented the Montreal procedure, in which he treated patients with severe epilepsy by destroying nerve cells in the brain where the seizures originated. Before operating, he stimulated the brain with electrical probes while the patients were conscious on the operating table (under only local anesthesia), and observed their responses. In this way he could more accurately target the areas of the brain responsible, reducing the side-effects of the surgery.
This technique also allowed him to create maps of the sensory and...
less
