Wilder Penfield#Neural Stimulation

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Born in Spokane, Washington, on January 26, 1891,{{Cite web |title=A Science Odyssey: People and Discoveries: Wilder Penfield |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bhpenf.html |access-date=2025-05-19 |website=www.pbs.org}}{{Cite news |date=1976-04-06 |title=W.G. PENFIELD, NEUROLOGIST, DIES |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/04/06/archives/wg-penfield-neurologistdies-refined-techniques-to-treat-epilepsy.html |access-date=2025-05-19 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} Penfield spent most of his early life in Hudson, Wisconsin. He studied at Princeton University, where he was a member of Cap and Gown Club{{cite journal |title=Princeton 1910–1914 |first=Allen Goodrich |last=Shenstone |journal=Princeton University Library Chronicle |volume=44 |number=1 |date=Autumn 1982 |pages=25–41 |url=http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/pulc/pulc_v_44_n_1.pdf#page=15 |access-date=2013-11-26 |doi=10.2307/26402300 |jstor=26402300 |archive-date=18 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120518145443/http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/pulc/pulc_v_44_n_1.pdf#page=15 |url-status=dead }} 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,{{cite book|editor1-last=Levens|editor1-first=R.G.C.|title=Merton College Register 1900–1964|date=1964|publisher=Basil Blackwell|location=Oxford|pages=102–103}} where he studied neuropathology under Sir Charles Scott Sherrington.{{Cite journal|last=Feindel|first=William|date=1977-09-01|title=Wilder Penfield (1891–1976)The Man and His Work|journal=Neurosurgery|language=en|volume=1|issue=2|pages=93–100|doi=10.1227/00006123-197709000-00001|pmid=355918|s2cid=44912089|issn=0148-396X|doi-access=free}} After one term at Merton, Penfield went to France where he served as a dresser in a military hospital in the suburbs of Paris. He was wounded in 1916 when the ferry he was aboard, the SS Sussex, was torpedoed. 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. Returning to Merton College in 1919, 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.{{cite journal |last=Gill |first=AS |author2=DK Binder |title=Wilder Penfield, Pío del Río-Hortega, and the discovery of oligodendroglia |journal=Neurosurgery |date=May 2007 |volume=60 |pages=discussion 940–948 |pmid=17460531 |doi=10.1227/01.NEU.0000255448.97730.34 |issue=5|s2cid=6282005 }} He also studied in Germany with Fedor Krause and Otfrid Foerster, as well as in New York City.{{cite web |url=http://etcweb.princeton.edu/CampusWWW/Companion/penfield_wilder.html |title=Wilder Penfield |access-date=2010-02-07 |publisher=Princeton University }}{{Cite journal|last=Blum|first=Alan|date=2011-04-19|title=A bedside conversation with Wilder Penfield|journal=CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal|volume=183|issue=7|pages=745–746|doi=10.1503/cmaj.110202|issn=0820-3946|pmc=3080520|pmid=21482658}}{{Cite journal|last1=Feindel|first1=William|last2=Preul|first2=Mark C.|date=1991-11-01|title=Origins of Wilder Penfield's surgical technique: The role of the "Cushing ritual" and influences from the European experience|journal=Journal of Neurosurgery|language=en-US|volume=75|issue=5|pages=812–820|doi=10.3171/jns.1991.75.5.0812|pmid=1919711}} In 1928, during the 6 months he spent in Germany with Foerster, he learned how to use local anesthesia to keep brain surgery patients awake.{{Cite journal|last=Compston|first=Alastair|date=February 2017|title=The structural basis of traumatic epilepsy and results of radical operation. By O. Foerster, Breslau, and Wilder Penfield, Montreal|journal=Brain|language=en|volume=140|issue=2|pages=508–513|doi=10.1093/brain/aww354|issn=0006-8950|doi-access=free}}See his autobiography No Man Alone: Ch. 8: "Interlude in Germany", pp. 167–168 and p. 257."Impressions of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Neurohistology in Central Europe" unpublished report by Penfield to the Rockefeller Foundation – 1928 ([https://digital.library.mcgill.ca/penfieldfonds/fullrecord.php?ID=9647&d=1 read online]).

After taking a surgical apprenticeship under Harvey Cushing, he obtained a position at the Neurological Institute of New York, where he carried out his first solo operations to treat epilepsy.{{cite journal |last1=Téllez-Zenteno |first1=José Francisco |last2=Ladino |first2=Lady Diana |title=Wilder Penfield of Montreal |journal=Journal of the Surgical Humanities |date=2018 |pages=6–9 |url=https://medicine.usask.ca/documents/surgery/humanities/JSH_Summer2018.pdf |publisher=University of Saskatchewan}} While in New York, he met David Rockefeller, who wished to endow an institute where Penfield could further study the surgical treatment of epilepsy. Academic politics amongst the New York neurologists, however, prevented its establishment in New York, so, in 1928, Penfield accepted an invitation from Sir Vincent Meredith to move to Montreal, Quebec, Canada. There, Penfield taught at McGill University and the Royal Victoria Hospital, becoming the city's first neurosurgeon.

File:Wilder Penfield.jpg

In 1934, Penfield, along with William Cone,{{cite web |last1=Andrew-Gee |first1=Eric |title=Pioneering neurosurgeon explored the mind's mysteries – and left behind secrets |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-pioneering-neurosurgeon-explored-the-minds-mysteries-and-left-behind/ |website=The Globe and Mail |access-date=25 October 2022 |date=15 January 2022}} founded and became the first director of the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital at McGill University, established with the Rockefeller funding. That year, he also became a British subject (as part of the British Empire, there was no distinct Canadian citizenship until 1947).

Penfield was unable to save his only sister, Ruth, who died from brain cancer, though complex surgery he performed added years to her life.{{Cite web|url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/01/wilder-penfield-google-honours-today-180126071943388.html|title=Wilder Penfield: Why Google honours him today|website=www.aljazeera.com|access-date=2018-01-27}}

Penfield was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1950{{cite web |title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter P |url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterP.pdf |publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences |access-date=15 April 2011}} and retired ten years later in 1960. He was a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.{{Cite web |title=Wilder Penfield |url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/20001882.html |access-date=2023-02-24 |website=www.nasonline.org}}{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Wilder+Penfield&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2023-02-24 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}} 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. A later biography, Something Hidden, was written by his grandson Jefferson Lewis.Charles Godfrey, "With Bible reading, hard work and obeying the Golden Rule, Penfield could do anything". The Globe and Mail, October 31, 1981.

In 1960, the year he retired, Penfield was awarded the Lister Medal for his contributions to surgical science.{{cite journal|date=January 1961|title=Lister Medal|journal=Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England|volume=28|issue=1|page=15|pmc=2414022|pmid=19310274}} 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.{{cite journal|last=Penfield|first=Wilder|date=August 1961|title=Activation of the Record of Human Experience|journal=Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England|volume=29|issue=2|pages=77–84|pmc=2414108|pmid=19310299}} 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.{{Cite web|url=http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/penfield/|title=Wilder Penfield Archive|website=digital.library.mcgill.ca|access-date=2019-08-05}}

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{{spaced ndash}}man's first classroom."{{cite web|url=https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/physicians/030002-2400-e.html|title=Famous Canadian Physicians: Dr. Wilder Penfield|website=Library and Archives Canada|access-date=25 January 2018}} He was also an early proponent of childhood bilingualism.{{cite journal |author= Lebrun, Yvan|date= 1971|title=The Neurology of Bilingualism= |journal=Word |volume=27 |issue=1–3 |pages=179–186 |doi=10.1080/00437956.1971.11435622 |doi-access=free }}

Penfield died on April 5, 1976, of abdominal cancer at Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/04/06/archives/wg-penfield-neurologistdies-refined-techniques-to-treat-epilepsy.html|title=W. G. Penfield, Neurologist, Dies.|date=5 April 1976|work=New York Times|access-date=27 January 2018}} He and his wife, Helen, had their ashes buried on the family property in East Bolton (Bolton-Est), Quebec on Sargent's Bay, Lake Memphremagog.{{cite web|url=http://www.municipalite.austin.qc.ca/uploaddir/files/Penfield_Austin_EN-WEB.pdf|title=Wilder Graves Penfield|last1=Williams|first1=Kate|last2=Penfield|first2=Wilder G. III|website=Municipality of Austin, Québec, Canada|access-date=27 January 2018|archive-date=23 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151223082823/http://www.municipalite.austin.qc.ca/uploaddir/files/Penfield_Austin_EN-WEB.pdf|url-status=dead}}

File:Wilder Penfield Pavilion Montreal.jpg

Penfield was a groundbreaking researcher and original surgeon. His development of a neurosurgical technique using an instrument known as the Penfield dissector, which produced the least injurious meningo-cerebral scar, became widely accepted in the field of neurosurgery and remains in regular use. With his colleague Herbert Jasper, he invented the "Montréal 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 motor cortices of the brain (see cortical homunculus) showing their connections to the various limbs and organs of the body. These maps are still used today, practically unaltered. Along with Herbert Jasper, he published this work in 1951 (2nd ed., 1954) as the landmark Epilepsy and the Functional Anatomy of the Human Brain. This work contributed a great deal to understanding the localization of brain function. Penfield's maps showed considerable overlap between regions (e.g. the motor region controlling muscles in the hand sometimes also controlled muscles in the upper arm and shoulder) a feature which he put down to individual variation in brain size and localisation: it has since been established that this is due to the fractured somatotopy of the motor cortex. From these results he developed his cortical homunculus map, which is how the brain sees the body from an inside perspective.

Penfield reported{{cite journal|title=Memory Mechanisms|journal=Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry|volume=67|issue=2|last=Penfield|first=Wilder|year=1952|pages=178–198|doi=10.1001/archneurpsyc.1952.02320140046005|pmid=14893992}} that stimulation of the temporal lobes could lead to vivid recall of memories. Oversimplified in popular psychology publications, including the best-selling I'm OK – You're OK, this seeded the common misconception that the brain continuously "records" experiences in perfect detail, although these memories are not available to conscious recall. Reported episodes of recall occurred in less than five percent of his patients, though these results have been replicated by modern surgeons.{{cite journal|last1=Maillard|first1=Louis|last2=McGonigal|first2=Aileen|last3=Chauvel|first3=Patrick|last4=Vignal|first4=Jean-Pierre|date=30 November 2006|title=The dreamy state: hallucinations of autobiographic memory evoked by temporal lobe stimulations and seizures|url=http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/130/1/88.article-info|journal=Brain|volume=130|issue=1|pages=88–89|doi=10.1093/brain/awl329|pmid=17142246|access-date=27 January 2018|doi-access=free|url-access=subscription}}{{cite journal|last1=Bartolomei|first1=F.|last2=Barbeau|first2=E.|last3=Gavaret|first3=M.|last4=Guye|first4=M.|last5=McGonigal|first5=J. Régis|last6=Chauvel|first6=P.|date=14 September 2004|title=Cortical stimulation study of the role of rhinal cortex in déjà vu and reminiscence of memories|journal=Neurology|volume=63|issue=5|pages=858–864|doi=10.1212/01.wnl.0000137037.56916.3f|pmid=15365137|s2cid=30995021}} Penfield's hypothesis on this subject was revised in 1970.{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wabwBwAAQBAJ|title=Origin and mechanism of Hallucinations|last1=Horowtiz|first1=M.J.|last2=Adams|first2=J.E.|publisher=Plenum Press|year=1970|isbn=978-1-4615-8647-0|pages=13–22|chapter=Hallucinations on Brain Stimulation: Evidence for Revision of The Penfield Hypothesis.|doi=10.1007/978-1-4615-8645-6|access-date=27 January 2018}}

Penfield's scientific contributions go past the somatosensory and the motor cortices; his extensive work of the functions of the brain also included charting the functions of the parietal and temporal cortices.{{cite web|url=http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2008/08/27/wilder-penfield-neural-cartographe|archive-url=https://archive.today/20141126032610/http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2008/08/27/wilder-penfield-neural-cartographe|url-status=dead|archive-date=26 November 2014|title=Wilder Penfield, Neural Cartographer|date=27 August 2008|website=Science Blogs|access-date=26 January 2018}} Of his 520 patients, 40 reported that while their temporal lobe was stimulated with an electrode they would recall dreams, smells, visual and auditory hallucinations, as well as out-of-body experiences.{{cite journal|last1=Tong|first1=Frank|date=March 2003|title=Out-of-body experiences: from Penfield to present.|pmid=12639686|journal=Trends in Cognitive Sciences|volume=7|issue=3|pages=104–106|doi=10.1016/s1364-6613(03)00027-5|s2cid=15800031}} In his studies, Penfield found that when the temporal lobe was stimulated it produced a combination of hallucinations, dream, and memory recollection.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KJtQptBcZloC|title=A Dictionary of Hallucinations|last=Blom|first=Jan Dirk|date=8 December 2009|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|doi=10.1007/978-1-4419-1223-7|access-date=27 January 2018|isbn=978-1-4419-1222-0}} These experiences would only last as long as the electrode stimulations were present on the cortex, and in some cases when patient experienced hallucinatory experiences that evoked certain smells, sensations of flashing light, stroking the back of their hand, and many others. Other stimulations had patients experiencing déjà vu, fear, loneliness, and strangeness. Certain areas of patients' temporal lobes were stimulated with an electrode in order to experience memories. Penfield called these perceptual illusions (physical hallucinations) interpretive responses. According to Penfield, when the temporal lobe was stimulated there were two types of perceptions experienced by patients:{{cite web|url=http://www.primal-page.com/penfield.htm|title=The Role of the Temporal Cortex in Certain Psychical Phenomena: A Review|last=Speyrer|first=John A.|date=July 1955|website=The Primal Psychotherapy Page|access-date=26 January 2018}}

1. Experential experience – where the patient recorded hearing a song, or seeing a flash of light.
2. Strip experience – The recall seems familiar to the patient and comes from the patient's past even though the patient may not be able to pinpoint the exact occasion. The recall of a memory or memories could reinforce the emotion tied to the experience.

Penfield stressed that the "things that have been recorded are the things which once came within the spot-light of attention". Penfield had over 25 years of research using electrical stimulation to produce experiential hallucinations. His conclusions show that patients experience a range of hallucinations from simple to complex. They also show that hallucinations can be stimulated.{{cite journal|last=Compston|first=Alastair|date=1 March 2005|title=From the Archives: The brain's record of auditory and visual experience. A final summary and discussion.|journal=Brain|volume=128|issue=3|pages=449–450|doi=10.1093/brain/awh435|doi-access=free}}

Penfield's expansion of the interpretive cortex includes the phenomenon of déjà vu.{{cite journal|last1=Bancaud|first1=J.|last2=Brunet-Bourgin|first2=F.|last3=Chauvel|first3=P.|last4=Halgren|first4=E.|date=February 1994|title=Anatomical origin of déjà vu and vivid 'memories' in human temporal lobe epilepsy.|journal=Brain|volume=117|issue=Pt 1|pages=71–90|doi=10.1093/brain/117.1.71|pmid=8149215}} Déjà vu is the sensation that an experience a person is having has previously been experienced. Déjà vu is typically experienced by people between the ages of 15 and 25, and affects approximately 60-70% of the population. It is thought to be a mismatch of the sensory input people receive and the system in which the brain recalls memory. Another thought on the cause of déjà vu is that there is a malfunction in the brain's short- and long-term memory systems where memories become stored in incorrect systems.{{cite web|url=http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-babble/201208/the-neuroscience-d-j-vu|title=The Neuroscience of Déjà Vu|last=Lewis|first=Jordan Gaines|date=14 August 2012|website=Psychology Today|access-date=26 January 2018}} There are several ways one can recognize familiar experiences – by mentally retrieving memories of a previous experience, or by having a feeling that an experience has occurred when it actually has not. Déjà vu is having that feeling of familiarity in a situation that is completely new. Memory is good at being familiar with objects, however it does not do well with the configuration or organization of objects. Déjà vu is an extreme reaction to the mind telling an individual that they are having a familiar experience.{{cite web|url=http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ulterior-motives/201001/what-is-d-j-vu|title=What Is Déjà Vu?|last=Markman|first=Art|date=5 January 2010|website=Psychology Today|access-date=26 January 2018}} Déjà vu is thought to be a consistent phenomenon. However, it has been associated with epilepsy, and with multiple psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and anxiety,Déjà vu but there has not been a clear, frequent diagnostic correlation between déjà vu and neurological or psychiatric disorders, except with patients that have a possibility of being epileptic.{{cite journal|last=Wild|first=Edward|date=January 2005|title=Déjà vu in neurology|journal=Journal of Neurology|volume=252|issue=1|pages=1–7|doi=10.1007/s00415-005-0677-3|pmid=15654548|s2cid=12098220}} Temporal lobe epilepsy affects the hippocampus. Patients that have this medical diagnosis are said to have a misfiring of the brain's neurons. The neurons transmit at random which results in the false sense of experiencing a familiar situation that had previously been experienced.{{cite web|url=http://www.livescience.com/38280-what-is-deja-vu.html|title=What Is Déjà Vu?|last=Lallanilla|first=Marc|date=18 July 2013|website=LiveScience|access-date=26 January 2018}} Different types of déjà vu are difficult to pinpoint because researchers who have studied déjà vu have developed their own categories and differentiations. On a broad perspective of research that is available, déjà vu can be divided into two categories: associative déjà vu and biological déjà vu. Associative déjà vu is typically experienced by normal, healthy individuals who experience things with the senses that can be associated to other experiences or past events. Biological déjà vu occurs in individuals who have temporal lobe epilepsy.{{cite journal|last1=Labate|first1=Angelo|last2=Cerasa|first2=Antonio|last3=Mumoli|first3=Laura|last4=Ferlazzo|first4=Edoardo|last5=Aguglia|first5=Umberto|last6=Quattrone|first6=Aldo|last7=Gambardella|first7=Antonio|year=2015|title=Neuro-anatomical differences among epileptic and non-epileptic déjà-vu.|pmid=25461702|journal=Cortex|volume=64|pages=1–7|doi=10.1016/j.cortex.2014.09.020|s2cid=24507367}} Their experience of déjà vu occurs usually just before they experience a seizure.{{cite web|url=http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/deja-vu1.htm|title=How Déjà Vu Works|last=Obringer|first=Lee Ann|website=How Stuff Works|date=11 April 2006|access-date=26 January 2018}} Recent research is looking at the new occurrence of chronic déjà vu. Chronic déjà vu is when an individual is experiencing a constant state of déjà vu. Failure of the temporal lobe is thought to be the cause of this phenomenon because the circuits that connect to memories get stuck in an active state, and create memories that never happened.

He was one of the signatories of the agreement to convene a convention for drafting a world constitution.{{Cite web |title=Letters from Thane Read asking Helen Keller to sign the World Constitution for world peace. 1961 |url=https://www.afb.org/HelenKellerArchive?a=d&d=A-HK01-07-B149-F04-022.1.8 |access-date=2023-07-01 |website=Helen Keller Archive |publisher=American Foundation for the Blind}}{{Cite web |title=Letter from World Constitution Coordinating Committee to Helen, enclosing current materials |url=https://www.afb.org/HelenKellerArchive?a=d&d=A-HK01-07-B154-F05-028.1.6 |access-date=2023-07-03 |website=Helen Keller Archive |publisher=American Foundation for the Blind}} As a result, for the first time in human history, a World Constituent Assembly convened to draft and adopt the Constitution for the Federation of Earth.{{Cite web |title=Preparing earth constitution {{!}} Global Strategies & Solutions {{!}} The Encyclopedia of World Problems |url=http://encyclopedia.uia.org/en/strategy/193465 |access-date=2023-07-15 |website=The Encyclopedia of World Problems {{!}} Union of International Associations (UIA)}}

File:Wilder Penfield plaque Montreal.JPG

Penfield was designated a National Historic Person in 1988 by the government of Canada. As such, a federal historical marker from the national Historic Sites & Monuments Board and Parks Canada was erected, located at a building that bears his name on University Street, part of the McGill University campus in Montreal.

A postage stamp honouring Penfield was issued by Canada Post on March 15, 1991.

Avenue du Docteur-Penfield ({{coord|45.500342|-73.583103}}), on the slope of Mount Royal in Montreal, was named in Penfield's honour on October 5, 1978. Part of this avenue borders McGill University's campus and intersects with Promenade Sir-William-Osler{{spaced ndash}}meaning medical historians and the like may amuse themselves by arranging to "meet at Osler and Penfield".

A portrait of Wilder Penfield hangs in Rhodes House at the University of Oxford, England.

Penfield was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) of the United Kingdom in 1943.

In honour of Wilder Graves Penfield's contribution to the public sector in Montreal, notably alongside his interest in further developing education, Wilder Penfield Elementary School was also established as part of the Lester B. Pearson School Board.

Penfield building, one of John Abbott College's ten buildings, also bears the name of the famous neurosurgeon.

Penfield was the subject of a Google doodle on January 26, 2018, marking the 127th anniversary of his birth. The doodle appeared on the Google homepage in selected countries on five continents.{{Cite web|url=https://doodles.google/doodle/wilder-penfields-127th-birthday/|title=Wilder Penfield's 127th Birthday|date=26 January 2018|website=Google Doodles|access-date=26 January 2018}}{{cite magazine|last1=Smith|first1=K.N.|title=Friday's Google Doodle Honors Neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/kionasmith/2018/01/26/fridays-google-doodle-honors-neurosurgeon-wilder-penfield/#204443ce7f9e|access-date=26 January 2018|magazine=Forbes|date=26 January 2018|language=en}}

Penfield Children's Center In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is named for Dr. Penfield for his advocacy of early intervention for children with developmental delays and disabilities.{{cite web|url=http://penfieldchildren.org/about-penfield/|title=About Penfield Children's Center|website=Penfield Children's Center|access-date=26 January 2018|archive-date=24 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161024032525/http://penfieldchildren.org/about-penfield/|url-status=dead}}

• Penfield's homunculus (neuroanatomic feature first characterized by Penfield in 1937){{cite journal |last1=Schott |first1=GD |date=1993 |title=Penfield's homunculus: a note on cerebral cartography |journal=Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry |volume=56 |issue=4 |pages=329–333 |doi= 10.1136/jnnp.56.4.329|pmid=8482950 |pmc=1014945 }}
• Penfield syndrome (a form of autonomic epileptic seizure){{cite book |last=Pryse-Phillips |first=William |date=2009 |title=Companion to Clinical Neurology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rlZnDAAAQBAJ |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=790 |isbn=9780195367720 |access-date=6 January 2019}}
• Penfield dissector (a type of surgical instrument used in neurosurgery and other disciplines)

Penfield was awarded many honorary degrees in recognition of his medical career. These include:

• Wilder Penfield was the subject of a Heritage Minute, dramatizing his development of the Montreal procedure. When Dr. Penfield stimulates the seizure-producing part of her brain, an epileptic patient exclaims: "I can smell burnt toast!" This Heritage Minute was widely shown and again made Penfield a household name in Canada.{{cite web |url=https://www.historicacanada.ca/content/heritage-minutes/wilder-penfield-0|title=Heritage Minutes: Wilder Penfield|access-date=12 January 2019 }}
• In Robert J. Sawyer's 2012 novel Triggers, it is revealed that the major character of Dr. Ranjip Singh, a Canadian, was inspired to pursue his career in neuroscience by having seen the "I can smell burnt toast" Heritage Minute about Penfield.
• In science fiction author Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, characters use a household device called a Penfield Mood Organ to dial up emotions on demand.{{cite web|url=https://law.stanford.edu/2012/11/01/lawandbiosciences-2012-11-01-biosci-fi-do-androids-dream-of-electric-sheep-philip-k-dick-1968/|title=Stanford Law BioSci-Fi: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?|date=November 2012 |access-date=12 January 2019 }}
• Shirow Masamune's anime series Ghost Hound makes several references to Penfield and his studies.{{cite web|url=https://randomc.net/2007/12/01/ghost-hound-07/|title=Ghost Hound 07|date=December 2007 |access-date=12 January 2019 }}
• The song "Wilder Penfield" by the Dead Sea Apes, a UK-based psychedelic rock group, from The Sun Behind The Sun, a collaboration with Black Tempest released in February 2013 on Cardinal Fuzz records.{{cite web|url=https://soundcloud.com/dead-sea-apes/wilder-penfield|title=Wilder Penfield (Penfield's Mood Organ mix)|last1=Dead Sea Apes|last2=Black Tempest|website=SoundCloud|access-date=12 January 2019}}
• In Ray Loriga's 1999 novel Tokio ya no nos quiere, Penfield's method of stimulating the temporal lobes is described and modified to treat the main character who has issues with memory recollection.{{cite magazine |last=Marshall |first=Richard |date=30 January 2004 |title=Freedom and Memory: The Ray Loriga Interview|url=http://www.3ammagazine.com/litarchives/2004/jan/interview_ray_loriga.html |magazine=3:AM Magazine |access-date=12 January 2019 }}
• In the video game Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht, "Penfield Mapping" is seemingly the process of drawing a cortical homunculus, necessary for one to enter a virtual environment.{{cite web|url=https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps2/519264-xenosaga-episode-i-der-wille-zur-macht/faqs/24989 |date=2 August 2003 |title=Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille Zur Macht References Guidedate=30 January 2004|access-date=12 January 2019}}
• Wilder Penfield's, Sensory & Motor Homunculus 3D figures have been on permanent exhibition in the National History Museum, London. Penfield's Homunculi have become popular exhibits.{{cite magazine |last=Resnick |first=Brian |date=26 January 2018 |title=Wilder Penfield redrew the map of the brain - by opening the heads of living patients|url=https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/1/26/16932476/wilder-penfield-brain-surgery-epilepsy-google-doodle |magazine=Vox |access-date=12 January 2019 }}

Between his graduation from Princeton and his studies at Oxford, Penfield served as Princeton's head football coach for one season.

{{CFB Yearly Record Start | type = coach | team = | conf = | bowl = | poll = no }}

{{CFB Yearly Record Subhead

| name = Princeton Tigers

| conf = Independent

| startyear = 1914

| endyear = single

}}

{{CFB Yearly Record Entry

| championship =

| year = 1914

| name = Princeton

| overall = 5–2–1

| conference =

| confstanding =

| bowlname =

| bowloutcome =

| bcsbowl =

| ranking = no

| ranking2 = no

}}

{{CFB Yearly Record Subtotal

| name = Princeton

| overall = 5–2–1

| confrecord =

}}

{{CFB Yearly Record End

| overall = 5–2–1

| bowls = no

| poll = no

| polltype =

| legend = no

}}

• Cytology and Cellular Pathology of the Nervous System. By various authors. Edited by W. Penfield. Three volumes, 1280 pages, 1932 ([https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001553054 read online])
• "Epilepsy and Cerebral Localization: A Study of the Mechanism, Treatment and Prevention of Epileptic Seizures". By Wilder Penfield and Theodore C. Erickson. Chapter XIV by Herbert H. Jasper. Chapter XX by M. R. Harrower-Erickson. Charles C. Thomas, 1941. {{OCLC|716544137}}
• Penfield, Wilder (1941). Canadian Army of Military Neurosurgery. Ottawa: Government Distribution Office. ([https://digital.library.mcgill.ca/penfieldfonds/fullrecord.php?ID=10461&d=1 read online])
• {{Cite book|title=The Cerebral Cortex of Man|last=Penfield, W. with Rasmussen, T. B.|year=1950|oclc=645750713}}
• Penfield, Wilder; Kristiansen, Kristian (1951). Epileptic seizure patterns; a study of the localizing value of initial phenomena in focal cortical seizures,. Springfield, Ill.: Thomas. {{OCLC|3385089}}.
• Epilepsy and the Functional Anatomy of the Human Brain. 2nd edition. Jasper, H., and Penfield, W. Little, Brown and Co., 1954. {{ISBN|0-316-69833-4}}
• {{Cite book|title=The Excitable Cortex in Conscious Man|last=Penfield, W.|year=1958|oclc=1055881925}} ([https://openlibrary.org/works/OL5295194W read online])
• Speech and Brain Mechanisms, Penfield, Wilder and Roberts, Lamar, Princeton University Press, 1959. ([https://openlibrary.org/works/OL5295191W read online])
• The Torch, a story of Hippocrates. Penfield, W. Little, Brown and Co.; 1960. {{ISBN|1-299-80119-6}}. (Historical novel) "A story of love, treachery, and the battle for truth in ancient Greece." ([https://openlibrary.org/works/OL5295197W read online])
• The Mystery of the Mind : A Critical Study of Consciousness and the Human Brain. Penfield, Wilder. Princeton University Press, 1975. {{ISBN|0-691-02360-3}} ([https://openlibrary.org/works/OL5295187W read online])
• No Man Alone: A Neurosurgeon's Life, Little, Brown and Co., 1977. {{ISBN|0-316-69839-3}}. Penfield's autobiography. ([https://openlibrary.org/works/OL17999424W read online])
• Something hidden : a biography of Wilder Penfield. Jefferson Lewis, Doubleday and Co., 1981. {{ISBN|0-385-17696-1}}. ([https://openlibrary.org/books/OL21541784M/Something_hidden read online])

• {{cite journal | doi = 10.1093/brain/53.2.99 | volume=53 | year=1930 | journal=Brain | pages=99–119 | author=Foerster O., Penfield Wilder| title=The Structural Basis of Traumatic Epilepsy and Results of Radical Operation | issue=2 | hdl=11858/00-001M-0000-002B-0D28-A | hdl-access=free }}
• {{cite journal | pmid = 20317931 | volume=23 | pmc=381999 | year=1930 | author=Penfield W | title=The Radical Treatment of Traumatic Epilepsy and ITS Rationale | journal=Can Med Assoc J | issue=2 | pages=189–197 }}

{{Commons|Wilder Penfield}}

{{Archival records

| title = Wilder Penfield fonds

| location = Osler Library of the History of Medicine

| description_URL = https://archivalcollections.library.mcgill.ca/index.php/wilder-penfield-fonds

}}

• 1958 Gateways To The Mind - Note: Starting at 46 minutes there is a 3 minutes video talk by Wilder Penfield ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX4mlgwSKd4 watch online])
• 1981 Something Hidden : A Portrait of Wilder Penfield by Bob Lower and Jefferson Lewis, National Film Board of Canada and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/39355175 VHS and DVD] ([http://images.nfb.ca/images/pages/en/search.html?clipIndex=27&resultsClipId=35482&nbpage=50&pageStr=1&newSearch=true&limitSearch=501&keyword=Something+Hidden%3A+A+Portrait+of+Wilder+Penfield&termsList=&geo=&year_from=&year_until=&collection=&duration_from=&duration_until=&number=&__son=&highDef=&clipAvailable=true&aspectRatio=&resolution=&sourceFormat=&uvcount=&avcount=&parentTopic=&searchTopic= watch video dailies online])
• [http://archive.gg.ca/honours/search-recherche/honours-desc.asp?lang=e&TypeID=orc&id=2239 Penfield's Order of Canada citation]
• [https://archivalcollections.library.mcgill.ca/index.php/wilder-penfield-fonds Wilder Penfield Fonds] at the Osler Library of the History of Medicine, McGill University.
• [http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/penfield/ Searchable database of the Penfield Fonds] from the Osler Library of the History of Medicine
• A selection of items from the fonds have been digitized: [http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/penfieldfonds/ Wilder Penfield Digital Collection]
• [https://archivalcollections.library.mcgill.ca/index.php/jefferson-lewis-collection Jefferson Lewis Fonds] at the Osler Library of the History of Medicine, McGill University, contains materials assembled by Jefferson Lewis for the purpose of writing his biography of Penfield, Something Hidden
• [http://www.psych.ualberta.ca/~gcpws/Penfield/Penfield.html Penfield biography] at the "Great Canadian Psychology" website (University of Alberta).
• [http://www.municipalite.austin.qc.ca/uploaddir/files/Penfield_Austin_EN-WEB.pdf Wilder Graves Penfield, MD, OM, CC, FRS, 1891-1976 / text by Kate Williams and Wilder G. Penfield III ] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20151223082823/http://www.municipalite.austin.qc.ca/uploaddir/files/Penfield_Austin_EN-WEB.pdf archive])

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Penfield, Wilder}}

Category:1891 births

Category:1976 deaths

Category:Alumni of Merton College, Oxford

Category:American emigrants to Canada

Category:American Rhodes Scholars

Category:Anglophone Quebec people

Category:Canadian medical researchers

Category:Canadian Presbyterians

Category:Deaths from cancer in Quebec

Category:Canadian cognitive neuroscientists

Category:Companions of the Order of Canada

Category:Canadian Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George

Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Category:Canadian fellows of the Royal Society

Category:Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences

Category:Foreign members of the USSR Academy of Sciences

Category:Johns Hopkins School of Medicine alumni

Category:Academic staff of McGill University

Category:Members of the Order of Merit

Category:Canadian neurosurgeons

Category:Neuropsychologists

Category:Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)

Category:People from Hudson, Wisconsin

Category:Princeton Tigers football coaches

Category:Princeton Tigers football players

Category:Players of American football from Spokane, Washington

Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society

Category:20th-century Canadian psychologists

Category:20th-century American psychologists

Category:World Constitutional Convention call signatories