Penfield - A great explorer of psyche-soma-neuroscience

Abstract

Byline: Rahul. Kumar, Vikram. Yeragani am an explorer, but unlike my predecessors who used compasses and canoes to discover unknown lands, I used a scalpel and a small electrode to explore and map human brain. Throughout my career, I was driven by central question that has obsessed both scientists and philosophers for hundreds of years. Are mind and body one? Can mind - thinking, reasoning, imagination - be explained by functions of brain? As a doctor, my first concern was always for my patients - to relieve terrible suffering caused by diseases such as epilepsy. I found that by stimulating exposed brain of a conscious patient with a small electrical current, patient could tell me what they were feeling or seeing, and through this we could isolate damaged part of brain. I developed treatments for epilepsy based on this knowledge. But procedure also opened a window to mind, giving us for first time a glimpse of how dreaming occurs, how memory works, and where speech and speech comprehension reside. Wilder Graves Penfield Wilder Graves Penfield was born in Spokane (Washington) on January 26th, 1891. He reflected toward end of his productive life that only certain virtue that came into world with him at his birth was tenacity of purpose'!' Having grown up in an unstable family, both financially and emotionally, his childhood was eventful. At end of his sophomore year, an enthusiasm engendered by Professor Conklin's biology lectures led him to decide on a career in medicine. He was accepted for admission to Merton College at Oxford, where he completed a bachelor's degree in sciences and, in 1920, a master's degree. At Oxford, he was influenced by Sir William Osler and Sir Charles Sherrington. [sup][1] Sherrington was noted for his experiments establishing modern understanding of integrated nervous functions. He made Penfield realize that the nervous system was great unexplored field - in which mystery of mind of man might someday be explained'!' Still, many expressed doubts about this simplistic way of trying to understand human mind! In January 1915, he enrolled in courses that would assist in his completion of a medical degree at Johns Hopkins University. He was assisted in arranging this by Sir William Osler, Canadian-born Regius Professor of Medicine. In late 1917, he returned to United States. Penfield completed his medical studies at Johns Hopkins and received his medical degree in 1918.The following year, he was surgical intern at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, serving as both apprentice and later assistant to Harvey Cushing, one of most gifted brain surgeons in United States. [sup][1] The memory of undiscovered country he had glimpsed through Sherrington's lectures continued to intrigue him. He accordingly returned to Oxford for third and final year of his Rhodes Scholarship as a graduate student in neurophysiology under Sherrington and following that with a year as a research fellow in clinical neurology and neurosurgery at National Hospital at Queen Square in London. While in England, he developed a special interest in Epilepsy. Penfield returned to United States. In 1921, he rejected a lucrative position as a surgeon at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit - because it would have afforded him no opportunity for research - and accepted instead a post as associate surgeon at Columbia University and Presbyterian Hospital, affiliated with Columbia, and to New York Neurological Institute. Through his work there, his interest in epilepsy was deepened. In his effort to advance his knowledge and ability in his areas of specialization, Penfield studied first hand methods used by specialists in Spain, Germany and elsewhere. There, he developed his surgical techniques under Allen O. Whipple, and organized and pursued research in a laboratory of neurocytology. …