Dr. Brenda Milner - Later Academics

Brenda was "impressed, as no one could fail to be, by the experience of being present in the gallery of the operating room while Penfield stimulated the exposed cortex in awake patients [with epilepsy]". She earned her PhD in experimental psychology under Hebb in 1952.

In 1955, Brenda met the patient that would make her famous. Known only as HM, a man who underwent surgery to remove part of his brain (a process called a medial temporal lobe lesion) was left without short term memory. The moment HM's attention was diverted, he was unable to recall events prior. After careful experimentation, Brenda found that while HM did not remember learning specific tasks (or even Brenda's name!), he became better at them and was therefore still learning.