Brenda Milner: A Life Dedicated To Neuropsychology

Brenda Milner is considered the creator of neuropsychology and one of the researchers who helped us the most to understand how our memory works. Without a doubt, we are talking about one of the most remarkable figures in cognitive neuroscience.

She was born on 15 July 1918 in the UK, and will soon be 100 years old. Her parents were dedicated to music and showed a great talent, but from the beginning, Brenda Milner showed that she had a very different interest. She began working in the field of experimental psychology, specializing in memory disorders related to damage to the cerebral hemispheres and the resulting amnestic syndrome.

She continues to work as a university professor and is considered an authority in the field of neuroscience.

The HM case: the origin of neuropsychology

H. Molaison was 9 years old when he was hit by a cyclist. When he fell to the ground, he hit his head hard, causing his skull to rupture. It was 1935 and HM needed to see a doctor, because as a result of the severe blow he suffered, he began to have continuous convulsions, including loss of consciousness.

He lived this way for another two decades, until the seizures became so severe that he couldn’t lead a normal life. He started having memory problems frequently and was fired from his job as an engine mechanic. With no job, no health and no family, he became desperate. Doctors told him about a neurosurgeon who could help him who was trying new methods of treating brain-injured patients.

Dr. Scoville tested all non-invasive treatments known to medical science at the time, but nothing changed in HM’s life. He then decided to partially remove HM’s temporal lobe. . The patient began to forget everything that happened to him.

Frightened by the result, he consulted Dr. Brenda Milner, who at the time specialized in memory disorders and worked as a professor of cognitive neuroscience.

Brenda Milner performed a series of tests on the patient and noticed that every time she visited him, he did not recognize her. Everything was new to HM and he didn’t remember what he had done before. He had an anterograde amnesia, that is, a loss of the ability to create new memories.

Brenda Milner’s conclusions about the work carried out with this patient were decisive in the field of neuropsychology to differentiate two types of memory: explicit memory and procedural memory.

Explicit memory and procedural memory

Explicit memory is a type of long-term memory (MLP). It refers to memories that can be consciously remembered, such as childhood memories, experiences with certain people in childhood or adolescence and some flashes of the first images of our childhood.

Procedural memory refers to unconscious memories. That is, skills acquired in the past, such as driving or riding a bicycle. In HM’s case, Milner noted that the patient’s explicit memory had stopped working after partial removal of the temporal lobe, but improved over the tests in the repetition tasks associated with procedural memory. That is, improved performance in all tasks that involved learning by repetition.

The brave HM died in 2008 in a nursing home at the age of 82. Perhaps he was the most famous patient in the history of neuroscience. For that reason, doctors kept his brain in formaldehyde and thoroughly analyzed the damaged areas related to his memory disorders.

Brenda Milner’s international recognition

Milner is considered a pioneer in the field of neuropsychology. His work with patient HM was decisive in the study of memory and other cognitive functions.

She helped describe the lateralization of the human brain and determine how the representation of language in the cerebral hemispheres can vary in left-handed and right-handed individuals. In his resume there are more than twenty “honoris causa” recognitions. Today, on the verge of turning 100, she continues to work and get involved as she did at the beginning of her career, retaining her position as a professor in the department of neurology at the Montreal Neurological Institute.

“ There are many memories in us. The body and the spirit, each one has its memory”.
– Balzac –