Wilder Penfield

Wilder Penfield was an American-born Canadian neurosurgeon who founded the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital at McGill University in 1934 and became one of the most influential figures in twentieth century brain surgery. Operating on patients who remained conscious under local anesthesia, he applied electrical stimulation directly to the exposed cortex to map which brain regions controlled movement and sensation, producing the cortical homunculus, and to locate the tissue causing a patient's epileptic seizures before removing it, a method that became known as the Montreal Procedure. His work extended into studying memory, hallucination and consciousness through the same stimulation technique, and he remained active in neurological research until his retirement in 1960.