Brenda Milner (née Langford; July 15, 1918) is a British-Canadian
neuropsychologist
Neuropsychology is a branch of psychology concerned with how a person's cognition and behavior are related to the brain and the rest of the nervous system. Professionals in this branch of psychology often focus on how injuries or illnesses of t ...
who has contributed extensively to the research literature on various topics in the field of
clinical neuropsychology
Clinical neuropsychology is a sub-field of psychology concerned with the applied science of brain-behaviour relationships. Clinical neuropsychologists use this knowledge in the assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and or rehabilitation of patients ...
.
Milner is a professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at
McGill University
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...
and a professor of Psychology at the
Montreal Neurological Institute
The McGill University Health Centre (MUHC; french: Centre universitaire de santé McGill) is one of two major healthcare networks in the city of Montreal, Quebec. It is affiliated with McGill University and is one of the largest medical complex in ...
.
[Brenda Milner Wins Balzan Prize for Cognitive Neurosciences](_blank)
(2011). Government of Canada. , she holds more than 25 honorary degrees and she continued to work in her nineties.
Her current work covers many aspects of neuropsychology including her lifelong interest in the involvement of the temporal lobes in episodic memory. She is sometimes referred to as the founder of neuropsychology
and has been essential in its development. She received the
Balzan Prize for Cognitive Neuroscience in 2009, and the
Kavli Prize
The Kavli Prize was established in 2005 as a joint venture of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, and the Kavli Foundation. It honors, supports, and recognizes scientists for outstan ...
in Neuroscience, together with
John O'Keefe, and
Marcus E. Raichle, in 2014. She
turned 100 in July 2018 and at the time was still overseeing the work of researchers.
Early life and education
Brenda Langford (later Milner by marriage) was born on July 15, 1918, in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
, England.
Milner's father
Samuel Langford
Samuel Langford (1863 - 8 May 1927) was an influential English music critic of the early twentieth century.
Trained as a pianist, Langford became chief music critic of ''The Manchester Guardian'' in 1906, serving in that post until his death. ...
was a musical critic, journalist, and teacher, and her mother (née Leslie Doig) was a singing student.
Though she was a daughter to two musically talented parents, she had no interest in music.
She was tutored by her father in
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
and the
arts
The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...
until the age of 8."
She attended
Withington Girls' School
Withington Girls' School is an independent day school in Fallowfield, Manchester, United Kingdom, providing education for girls between the ages of seven and eighteen. Withington is a member of the Girls' Schools Association and the Headmasters ...
,
which led her to attend
Newnham College, Cambridge
Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge.
The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicen ...
,
to study mathematics, having received a scholarship in 1936.
However, after realising she was not "perceptive" enough for mathematics, Milner changed her field of study to psychology.
[ In 1939, Milner graduated with a B.A. degree in experimental psychology,][ which at that time was considered a ]moral science
Human science (or human sciences in the plural), also known as humanistic social science and moral science (or moral sciences), studies the philosophical, biological, social, and cultural aspects of human life. Human science aims to expand our u ...
.
One of her supervisors in the Department of Experimental Psychology, Cambridge was Oliver Zangwill
Oliver Louis Zangwill FRS (29 October 1913 – 12 October 1987) was an influential British neuropsychologist. He was Professor of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, 1952–1981, and then professor emeritus. His father was author ...
and to him she owed her first interest in human brain function,[ and the value of studying brain lesions.]
After her graduation near the time of World War II Newnham College awarded her a Sarah Smithson Research Studentship, which allowed her to attend Newnham for the following two years.[ As a result of World War II, the work of the Cambridge Psychological Laboratory, under Bartlett's leadership, was diverted almost overnight to applied research in the selection of aircrew.][ Milner's position was to devise perceptual tasks for future use in selecting aircrew. More specifically, she was on a team interested in distinguishing fighter pilots from ]bomber pilot
An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they ar ...
s using aptitude tests
An examination (exam or evaluation) or test is an educational assessment intended to measure a test-taker's knowledge, skill, aptitude, physical fitness, or classification in many other topics (e.g., beliefs). A test may be administered verba ...
. "Later in the war, from 1941 to 1944, she worked in Malvern as an Experimental Officer for the Ministry of Supply, investigating different methods of display and control to be used by radar operators."[
In 1941 Brenda met her husband, Peter Milner.] Both Brenda and her husband were working on radar research. He was an electrical engineer who had also been recruited for the war effort. In 1944, they married and left for Canada where Peter had been invited to work with physicists on atomic research. They travelled to Boston on the ship the Queen Elizabeth together with "war brides" who were travelling to the United States to live with their husbands' families during the war. Upon arrival in Canada, she began teaching psychology at the University of Montreal, where she stayed for 7 years.
In 1949, Brenda Milner graduated with a M.A. in experimental psychology in Cambridge. In Montreal, she became a Ph.D. candidate in physiological psychology at McGill University
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...
, under the direction of Donald Olding Hebb. While working on her Ph.D., Milner and Hebb presented research on their patient P.B. who had undergone a medial temporal lobectomy and had subsequent memory impairment. This garnered the attention of Wilder Penfield
Wilder Graves Penfield (January 26, 1891April 5, 1976) was an American-Canadian neurosurgeon. He expanded brain surgery's methods and techniques, including mapping the functions of various regions of the brain such as the cortical homunculus. ...
. In 1950, Hebb gave Milner an opportunity to study with him at the Montreal Neurological Institute. Under the supervision of Penfield, she studied the behaviour of young adult epileptic patients treated with elective focal ablation of brain tissue to treat uncontrolled seizures. In 1952, Milner earned her Ph.D. in experimental psychology with a thesis on the cognitive effects of temporal lobe damage in man. Milner has been awarded a large number of honorary degrees including an honorary Sc.D from the University of Cambridge in 2000.
Professional career
In 1954, Milner published an article in the McGill University Psychological Bulletin entitled 'Intellectual Function of the Temporal Lobes'. In this publication she presented data that showed that temporal lobe damage can cause emotional and intellectual changes in humans and lower primates. In this work, Milner reviewed animal studies of neural function and compared it to human neuroscience work. Her publication discouraged many neurosurgeons from completing surgeries on human beings that could negatively impact their lives. "Milner's early work on the temporal lobes was influenced by the results of ablation work with lower primates, and particularly by Mishkin and Pribram's discovery of the role of the inferotemporal neocortex in visual discrimination learning."
Milner was a pioneer in the field of neuropsychology and in the study of memory
Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered, ...
and other cognitive functions in humankind. She was invited to Hartford to study Henry Molaison, formerly known as patient H.M., who became the most famous patient in cognitive neuroscience
Cognitive neuroscience is the scientific field that is concerned with the study of the biological processes and aspects that underlie cognition, with a specific focus on the neural connections in the brain which are involved in mental proces ...
. He "had undergone a bilateral temporal lobectomy that included removal of major portions of the hippocampus."[Turner, M. S. (2010)]
Tracing Permanent Memories
. The DANA Foundation. She studied the effects of this damage to the medial temporal lobe
The temporal lobe is one of the four major lobes of the cerebral cortex in the brain of mammals. The temporal lobe is located beneath the lateral fissure on both cerebral hemispheres of the mammalian brain.
The temporal lobe is involved in pro ...
on memory and systematically described the cognitive deficits exhibited by H.M.
In the early stages of her work with H.M., Milner wanted to completely understand his memory impairments. Dr. Milner showed that the medial temporal lobe amnestic syndrome is characterised by an inability to acquire new memories and an inability to recall established memories from a few years immediately before damage, while memories from the more remote past and other cognitive abilities, including language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
, perception
Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous system ...
and reasoning were intact. For example, Milner spent three days with H.M. as he learned a new perceptual-motor task in order to determine what type of learning and memory were intact in him. This task involved reproducing the drawing of a star by looking at it in a mirror.[ His performance improved over those three days. However, he subsequently retained absolutely no memory of any events that took place during those three days.][ This led Milner to speculate that there are different types of learning and memory, each dependent on a separate system of the brain .] She was able to demonstrate two different memory systems - episodic memory
Episodic memory is the memory of everyday events (such as times, location geography, associated emotions, and other contextual information) that can be explicitly stated or conjured. It is the collection of past personal experiences that occurred ...
and procedural memory
Procedural memory is a type of implicit memory ( unconscious, long-term memory) which aids the performance of particular types of tasks without conscious awareness of these previous experiences.
Procedural memory guides the processes we perform ...
.
Milner discovered from H.M. and other case studies that "bilateral medial temporal-lobe resection in man results in a persistent impairment of recent memory whenever the removal is carried far enough posteriorly to damage portions of the anterior hippocampus and hippocampal gyrus." She showed that in patients with this syndrome the ability to learn certain motor skill
A motor skill is a function that involves specific movements of the body's muscles to perform a certain task. These tasks could include walking, running, or riding a bike. In order to perform this skill, the body's nervous system, muscles, and br ...
s remained normal. This finding introduced the concept of multiple memory systems within the brain and stimulated an enormous body of research. Milner stated in an interview with the ''McGill Journal of Medicine'', "To see that HM had learned the task perfectly but with absolutely no awareness that he had done it before was an amazing dissociation. If you want to know what was an exciting moment of my life, that was one."[
She has made major contributions to the understanding of the role of the ]frontal lobe
The frontal lobe is the largest of the four major lobes of the brain in mammals, and is located at the front of each cerebral hemisphere (in front of the parietal lobe and the temporal lobe). It is parted from the parietal lobe by a groove be ...
s in memory processing, in the area of organizing information. "Dr. Milner's seminal research 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
Hearing, or auditory perception, is the ability to perceive sounds through an organ, such as an ear, by detecting vibrations as periodic changes in the pressure of a surrounding medium. The academic field concerned with hearing is audit ...
, memory
Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered, ...
and speech
Speech is a human vocal communication using language. Each language uses Phonetics, phonetic combinations of vowel and consonant sounds that form the sound of its words (that is, all English words sound different from all French words, even if ...
."
She demonstrated the critical role of the dorsolateral frontal cortex for the temporal organization of memory and her work showed that there is partial separability of the neural circuits subserving recognition memory from those mediating memory for temporal order. She described the inflexibility in problem solving
Problem solving is the process of achieving a goal by overcoming obstacles, a frequent part of most activities. Problems in need of solutions range from simple personal tasks (e.g. how to turn on an appliance) to complex issues in business an ...
that is now widely recognized as a common consequence of frontal-lobe injury. These refinements in the understanding of memory and exposition of the relevant brain regions revealed the anatomically diffuse nature of complex cognitive functions in the brain.
Milner helped describe the lateralization
The lateralization of brain function is the tendency for some neural functions or cognitive processes to be specialized to one side of the brain or the other. The median longitudinal fissure separates the human brain into two distinct cerebra ...
of function in the human brain and has shown how the neural substrate of language in the cerebral hemispheres can vary in left-handed, right-handed and ambidextrous individuals (see handedness). These studies of the relationship between hand preference and speech
Speech is a human vocal communication using language. Each language uses Phonetics, phonetic combinations of vowel and consonant sounds that form the sound of its words (that is, all English words sound different from all French words, even if ...
lateralization led to an understanding of the effects of early unilateral brain lesions on the pattern of cerebral organization at maturity. Her studies were among the first to demonstrate convincingly that damage to the brain can lead to dramatic functional reorganization.
Using mostly prize money from her numerous awards, Milner donated 1 million dollars to the Montreal Neurological Institute
The McGill University Health Centre (MUHC; french: Centre universitaire de santé McGill) is one of two major healthcare networks in the city of Montreal, Quebec. It is affiliated with McGill University and is one of the largest medical complex in ...
in 2007, after establishing a foundation in her name.
Recent research
In more recent times, Milner has expanded her research to the study of brain activity in normal subjects using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI
Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI (fMRI) measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow. This technique relies on the fact that cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation are coupled. When an area ...
) and positron emission tomography (PET). These studies focus on the identification of brain regions associated with spatial memory and language, including the neural substrates of monolingual and bilingual speech processing. In another series of PET studies, she has sought to delineate further the role of the right hippocampal region in memory for the spatial location of objects.
Milner continued teaching and researching past her 100th birthday. She is the Dorothy J. Killam Professor at the Montreal Neurological Institute, and a professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University. One of Milner's current collaborators is Denise Klein, an assistant professor in the Neurology/Cognitive Neuroscience unit at McGill.[The Great Canadian Psychologist Website.](_blank)
(2008). Their research on bilingualism entails investigating the difference in neural pathways used to acquire new and native languages.
In 2018, Milner celebrated her 100th birthday in Montreal with about 30 friends, including fellow researcher Dr. Denise Klein. Although she never expected to reach this age, Milner stated that she has "every intention of continuing for many more birthdays." The Montreal Neurological Institute held a symposium in September 2018, celebrating her accomplishments. That same year, Milner participated in a video series, launched by the Montreal Neurological Institute, dedicated to promoting female scientists and researchers.
youtube.com During the interview, Milner spoke about her early life and gave an overview of her career.
Awards and honours
Milner has received numerous awards for her contributions to neuroscience and psychology including memberships in the Royal Society of London
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
, the Royal Society of Canada and the National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
. In total, she has been awarded honorary degrees from more than 20 different universities across Canada, Europe, and the United States.
Early on, Milner was awarded a Sarah Smithson Research Studentship by Newnham College, Cambridge after her graduation, which allowed her to continue her work at Newnham College. In 1984 Milner was made an Officer of the Order of Canada
The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit.
To coincide with the ...
and was promoted to Companion in 2004. In 1987, she was awarded the Ralph W. Gerard Prize in Neuroscience. She was also awarded the National Academy of Sciences Award in the Neurosciences in 2004 for her seminal investigations of the role of the temporal lobes and other brain regions in learning, memory, and language.Nas Award in the Neurosciences.
(2012). In 1985, she was made an Officer of the National Order of Quebec
The National Order of Quebec, termed officially in French as ''l'Ordre national du Québec'', and in English abbreviation as the Order of Quebec, is an order of merit in the Canadian province of Quebec. Instituted in 1984 when Lieutenant Governo ...
and was promoted to Grand Officer in 2009. She was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
in 2007. She was awarded the Balzan Prize for her contributions to Cognitive Neurosciences in a ceremony held in the Swiss Parliament in December 2009.
Milner was awarded the Kavli Prize
The Kavli Prize was established in 2005 as a joint venture of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, and the Kavli Foundation. It honors, supports, and recognizes scientists for outstan ...
in Neuroscience in 2014. Other awards and recognition include: Election to the National Academy of Sciences (1976), the (1996), election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2005), the Dan David Prize
The Dan David Prize is a major international award that recognizes and supports outstanding contributions to the study of history and other disciplines that shed light on the human past. It awards nine prizes of $300,000 each year to outstanding ...
(2014), the from the (2014), induction into the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame (2012), recipient of a medal of honour from the National Assembly of Quebec
The National Assembly of Quebec (officially in french: link=no, Assemblée nationale du Québec) is the legislative body of the province of Quebec in Canada. Legislators are called MNAs (Members of the National Assembly; french: link=no, déput ...
(2018), Pearl Meister Greengard Prize
The Pearl Meister Greengard Prize is an award for women scientists in biology given annually by the Rockefeller University.
The Prize was founded by Nobel laureate Paul Greengard and his wife Ursula von Rydingsvard in honor of Greengard's moth ...
(2011), the Norman A. Anderson Lifetime Achievement Award (2010), the Goldman-Rakic Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Cognitive Neuroscience by NARSAD (2009), the NSERC Medal of Excellence (2009 and 2010), the Gairdner Foundation International Award
The Canada Gairdner International Award is given annually by the Gairdner Foundation at a special dinner to five individuals for outstanding discoveries or contributions to medical science. Receipt of the Gairdner is traditionally considered a ...
(2005), the Prix Wilder-Penfield (Prix du Québec) (1993), and election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
References
External links
*
Great Canadian Psychology Website – Brenda Milner Biography
Interview on Futures in Biotech (2008)
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
(2013)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Milner, Brenda
1918 births
Living people
Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge
British emigrants to Canada
British women academics
Canadian women academics
English psychologists
English neuroscientists
Canadian cognitive neuroscientists
Companions of the Order of Canada
Female Fellows of the Royal Society
Fellows of Newnham College, Cambridge
Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada
Scientists from Manchester
Grand Officers of the National Order of Quebec
McGill University faculty
McGill University Faculty of Science alumni
Neuropsychologists
Canadian women neuroscientists
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Fellows of the Royal Society
People educated at Withington Girls' School
Fellows of the Cognitive Science Society
Canadian centenarians
British centenarians
Women centenarians
Canadian women psychologists
Kavli Prize laureates in Neuroscience
Canadian Fellows of the Royal Society