The Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital (MNI), also known as Montreal Neuro or The Neuro, is a research and medical centre dedicated to

neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, deve ...

, training and clinical care, located in the city's

downtown core The Downtown Core is the historical and downtown centre of the city-state of Singapore and the main commercial area in Singapore excluding reclaimed lands with many integrated resorts such as the Marina Bay Sands, one of the most expensive buil ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirteen ...

, Canada. It is part of the

McGill University Health Centre 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 ...

network and it is situated on the southern slope of Mount Royal along the east side of University Street, just north of Pine Avenue. It was founded in 1934 by neurosurgeon

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 ...

, who developed th
Montreal procedure
there for the treatment of epilepsy.

History

The Montreal Neurological Institute originated from the Sub-Department of Neurosurgery at the Royal Victoria Hospital. The Neuro was created at the RVH in 1933, before it moved to its newly-constructed building across University Street. The cornerstone of The Neuro was laid on October 6, 1933. On September 27, 1934 Sir Edward Beatty, chancellor of

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 Univers ...

, declared the institute formally opened.

The Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carn ...

provided funds to build and equip the laboratories of the institute and created an endowment fund of one million dollars in support of the scientific work of the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery. The clinical, or hospital, part of the institute was built through donations from private individuals. The Province of Quebec and the City of Montreal agreed that they would be responsible for the hospital’s yearly operation. At the end of Penfield’s foundation address, he expressed the hope that the institute would act as a catalyst for Canadian neurology: “We dare to hope that this is the inauguration of an institute of medicine that is characteristically Canadian, the birth of a Canadian School of Neurology.”

Open Science

In 2016, The Neuro became the first academic institution of its kind in the world to implement in practice the principles of open science, when the Lawrence and Judith Tanenbaum Family Foundation donated $20 M to establish the Tanenbaum Open Science Institute. Dr. Guy Rouleau, the current Director of The Neuro, was awarded the Canada Gairdner Wightman award in 2020, for identifying and elucidating the genetic architecture of neurological and psychiatric diseases, including ALS, autism and schizophrenia, and his leadership in the field of Open Science.

A Killam Institution

The Montreal Neurological Institute is a Killam Institution, supported by th
Killam Trusts
In 1966, the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Endowment Fund and Fund for Advanced Studies were established at the Montreal Neurological Institute through the bequest of Dorothy Johnston Killam. These funds support the academic and training mission of the Institute.

Directors

# Wilder Graves Penfield, MD, 1934–1960 # Theodore Brown Rasmussen, MD, 1960–1972 # William Feindel, MD, 1972–1984 # Donald Baxter, MD, 1984–1992 & 2000–2002 # Richard A. Murphy, PhD, 1992–2000 # David R. Colman, PhD, 2002–2011 # Guy Rouleau, MD, PhD, 2011–present

Research Groups

Brain tumour A brain tumor occurs when abnormal cells form within the brain. There are two main types of tumors: malignant tumors and benign (non-cancerous) tumors. These can be further classified as primary tumors, which start within the brain, and secondar ...

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 process ...

Epilepsy Epilepsy is a group of non-communicable neurological disorders characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Epileptic seizures can vary from brief and nearly undetectable periods to long periods of vigorous shaking due to abnormal electrical ...

* Neuroimmunological diseases *

Neural circuit A neural circuit is a population of neurons interconnected by synapses to carry out a specific function when activated. Neural circuits interconnect to one another to form large scale brain networks. Biological neural networks have inspired th ...

s *

Neurodegenerative diseases A neurodegenerative disease is caused by the progressive loss of structure or function of neurons, in the process known as neurodegeneration. Such neuronal damage may ultimately involve cell death. Neurodegenerative diseases include amyotrophi ...

Neuroimaging Neuroimaging is the use of quantitative (computational) techniques to study the structure and function of the central nervous system, developed as an objective way of scientifically studying the healthy human brain in a non-invasive manner. Incr ...

and

neuroinformatics Neuroinformatics is the field that combines informatics and neuroscience. Neuroinformatics is related with neuroscience data and information processing by artificial neural networks. There are three main directions where neuroinformatics has to be ...

* Rare

neurological diseases A neurological disorder is any disorder of the nervous system. Structural, biochemical or electrical abnormalities in the brain, spinal cord or other nerves can result in a range of symptoms. Examples of symptoms include paralysis, muscle weakne ...

* Neurodevelopmental disorders

References