Wilder Penfield - Perintis Bedah Syaraf Otak

Wilder Graves Penfield OM CC CMG FRS (26 Januari 1891 - 5 April 1976) adalah seorang ahli bedah saraf perintis Amerika Kanada yang pernah dijuluki sebagai "orang Kanada yang hidup paling hebat." Ia memperluas metode dan teknik operasi otak, termasuk memetakan fungsi berbagai daerah otak seperti homunculus kortikal. Kontribusi ilmiahnya pada stimulasi saraf berkembang di berbagai topik termasuk halusinasi, ilusi, dan déjà vu. Penfield mencurahkan banyak pemikirannya pada proses mental, termasuk kontemplasi apakah ada dasar ilmiah untuk keberadaan jiwa manusia.

Pada tahun 1960, tahun ia pensiun, Penfield dianugerahi Medali Lister atas kontribusinya terhadap ilmu bedah. Dia menyampaikan Orasi Lister yang sesuai, "Aktivasi Rekaman Pengalaman Manusia", di Royal College of Surgeons of England pada tanggal 27 April 1961. Pada tahun 1967, dia diangkat menjadi Sahabat Ordo Kanada dan, pada tahun 1994, anumerta dilantik menjadi Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. Sebagian besar materi arsipnya tersimpan di Perpustakaan Osler di McGill University.

Di tahun-tahun berikutnya, Penfield mengabdikan dirinya untuk kepentingan umum, terutama untuk mendukung pendidikan universitas. Bersama teman-temannya, Gubernur Jenderal Georges Vanier dan Pauline Vanier , dia mendirikan Institut Keluarga Vanier "untuk mempromosikan dan membimbing pendidikan di kelas pertama rumah tangga." Dia juga merupakan pendukung awal bilingualisme masa kecil. Penfield meninggal pada tanggal 5 April 1976, menderita kanker perut di Royal Victoria Hospital di Montreal.

Wilder Graves Penfield OM CC CMG FRS (January 26, 1891 – April 5, 1976) was an American-Canadian pioneering neurosurgeon once dubbed "the greatest living Canadian".[clarification needed] 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 a lot of his thinking to mental processes, including contemplation of whether there was any scientific basis for the existence of the human soul.

Penfield was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1950[7] 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. In 1960, the year he retired, Penfield was awarded the Lister Medal for his contributions to surgical science.[8] 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. 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. In his later years, Penfield dedicated himself to the public interest, particularly in support of university education. With his friends Governor-General Georges Vanier and Pauline Vanier, he co-founded the Vanier Institute of the Family "to promote and guide education in the home – man's first classroom." He was also an early proponent of childhood bilingualism. Penfield died on April 5, 1976, of abdominal cancer at Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal.