The rockefeller university

In the early 1950s, Brenda Milner was making a name for herself among researchers in the memory field, studying memory defects in epileptic patients who had undergone surgery on the brain’s frontal lobe. By 1955, Dr. Milner’s work attracted the attention of a Connecticut neurosurgeon, William Scoville, whose patient, known by his initials H.M., suffered severe memory loss after having parts of the temporal lobe on both sides of his brain removed to treat severe epilepsy. The surgery rendered H.M. unable to form any new memories, although his personality was unchanged and he retained all memories of what happened in his life before the operation.

Dr. Milner’s work with H.M. and other patients over the last 60 years has provided many landmark discoveries in the study of human memory and the brain’s temporal lobes, which play a key role in emotional responses, hearing, memory and speech. She has spent her career unraveling the mysteries of the brain, and she has been credited by Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel with merging the fields of psychology and neurobiology to create the field of cognitive neuroscience.

Dr. Milner, whose discoveries revolutionized the understanding of memory, will be awarded the 2011 Pearl Meister Greengard Prize from The Rockefeller University. The prize, which honors female scientists who have made extraordinary contributions to biomedical science and carries an honorarium of $100,000, will be presented at a ceremony on Thursday, November 3 in Caspary Auditorium.

The Pearl Meister Greengard Prize was established by Paul Greengard, Vincent Astor Professor and head of the Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, and his wife, sculptor Ursula von Rydingsvard. Dr. Greengard donated the proceeds of his 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Rockefeller University and, in partnership with other supporters of the university, created the annual award. The award is named in memory of Greengard’s mother, who died giving birth to him.

“Brenda Milner is a great neuroscientist, and the founder of the field of neuropsychology. By virtue of her stature as a preeminent scientist, she has greatly advanced efforts to achieve acceptance and respect for women in science,” says Dr. Greengard.

“I am absolutely delighted and amazed to receive this special award and so proud and honored to be representing women scientists in this context. I am very privileged for having been able to pursue my sense of curiosity within the culture of excellence at the Montreal Neurological Institute, as well as to train and encourage talented young students — driving forces throughout my career to which I attribute much of my success,” says Dr. Milner.

Dr. Milner is the Dorothy J. Killam Professor at McGill University’s Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) and professor in the department of neurology and neurosurgery at McGill University. She was chosen as the 2011 recipient of the Pearl Meister Greengard Prize by the selection committee of 10 jurors, of which five are Nobel Laureates.

Dr. Milner began her career studying experimental psychology at the University of Cambridge, where she received a bachelor’s degree in 1939. She soon joined a team interested in distinguishing fighter pilots from bomber pilots in aptitude tests at the beginning of the Second World War. In 1950, she began doctoral studies with Donald Hebb, in the department of psychology at McGill University, and pursued her research at the MNI at McGill. She also worked closely with MNI founder Wilder Penfield, who was developing a surgical technique to relieve epileptic seizures that entailed removal of one part of the temporal lobe. For her doctoral research, Dr. Milner studied and tested Dr. Penfield’s patients before and after surgery. She found mild deficits in certain visual perceptual tasks, particularly in patients who had surgery on the right temporal lobe. However, some of these patients, especially those with lesions on the left temporal lobe, complained of memory problems. She decided to change the course of her research and focus on memory.

Dr. Milner later studied patients with damage to the brain’s frontal lobe, and found that this type of injury impairs a person’s ability to adapt to change. This discovery flew in the face of conventional wisdom at the time, which downplayed the importance of this brain region.

Among Dr. Milner’s findings from her work with H.M. was that the human brain has more than one memory system. Her research has also shed light on how the right and left hemispheres of the brain complement each other. Her research today continues to focus on the interaction between the brain’s hemispheres, and she has begun to use functional imaging in human subjects to explore this interaction.

Dr. Milner is a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has been awarded honorary degrees from more than 20 different universities around the world. In 2010 she was named one of 25 Transformational Canadians. Dr. Milner is the recipient of numerous scientific awards including the International Balzan Prize for Cognitive Neurosciences, the Gairdner Foundation International Award and the Prix Wilder-Penfield (Prix du Québec). She is a fellow of The Royal Society (London) and The Royal Society of Canada and was promoted to Companion of the Order of Canada in 2004. In 2007, she created the Brenda Milner Foundation to support and foster young researchers in the field of cognitive neuroscience through postdoctoral fellowships at the MNI.