When Brenda Milner was born in the United Kingdom, more than 100 years agoBeing a woman was not easy at all. The year was 1918 and the world, already complex enough in itself, was immersed in a war of terrifying proportions, something never seen before. Brenda Milner did not get off to a good start in the world. Six months after she was born, when the First World War had already ended, she and her mother were among the many who contracted the Spanish flu, from which she would soon recover.
However, Brenda Milner was very lucky, since from a very young age she was able to enjoy knowledge, a privilege that at that time was still denied to the vast majority of women. It was his father who first committed himself to his education.teaching her about art and mathematics, although he soon abandoned his role as private tutor and sent Milner to Withington Girls' School.
In the mid-1930s, 400 women were admitted to the prestigious Newham College in Cambridge. Brenda was one of the lucky few to receive that opportunity, thanks to a scholarship that allowed him to study mathematics. Some time later He abandoned mathematics to devote himself to psychologya degree from which he graduated in 1939 and to which he would dedicate his entire life from then on. Another scholarship allowed him to study for two years at Newnham College.
However, his studies were interrupted by the Second World War, in which Brenda Milner worked in the selection of members of the British Royal Air ForceThere she met her future husband, a nuclear engineer whom she married in 1944, the year in which she left the United Kingdom to devote herself to teaching at the University of Montreal in Canada.
He then earned his PhD in experimental psychology, receiving the first of more than twenty degrees he has received throughout his life. It was at this time that He began working at the Montreal Neurological Instituteto which she has remained linked throughout her life.
Brenda Milner and patient HM
If psychology is considered a science today, it is partly thanks to Brenda Milner, who fought to distance it from morality and bring it closer to other scientific knowledge such as neurology. It is not for nothing that Brenda Milner is considered the mother of neuropsychologythe branch of psychology that studies the consequences of everything that affects the central nervous system.
But perhaps Brenda Milner would never have come to prominence in neuropsychology had it not been for Henry Gustav Molaisonbetter known as Patient HM
At the age of nine, Henry Molaison suffered a bicycle accident. He hit his head so hard that from that moment on he suffered from epilepsy that would determine his life. He was 27 years old when he made the decision to undergo an operation in which a large part of his hippocampus was removed.
Although it is true that the seizures were reduced, HM left the operating room with anterograde amnesia which prevented him from storing new memories in his head.
Brenda Milner, who had previously worked studying memory-related processes, spent years researching the curious case of Henry Molaison, a man whose short-term memory lasted only a few seconds, but who could speak, reason and remember his past life.
Thanks to an experiment, Brenda Milner managed to discover that There was a part of his memory that had remained completely healthy.despite the operation. It was the year 62 and Milner asked Molaison to perform a complex exercise: After giving him a paper with two concentric stars drawn on it and placing him in front of a mirror, he asked him to draw a line between the two shapes, looking through the mirror.
Brenda Milner and Henry Molaison They spent days repeating this experiment. Of course, for Molaison each time was the first, but the same was not true for his brain, which, unbeknownst to him, stored the skill acquired through practice. Even if he had no idea, Each attempt was better than the last.
Thanks to Brenda Milner's discovery, scientists dispelled the idea that memory was stored indiscriminately throughout the brain. Milner demonstrated that Short-term memory and long-term memory were stored in two different areas of the brain: Declarative memory and procedural memory, responsible for remembering that skill that Molaison was acquiring without realizing it.
Henry Molaison died in December 2008. After years of studying his mind, science kept his brain.
The life of Brenda Milner 100 years later
Although it may seem impossible, Brenda Milner is still alive. He is currently 102 years old, But not even the weight of a lifetime dedicated to science has taken away his desire to continue researching.
So much so that The last article Milner collaborated on was published in December 2020.She also regularly collaborates in the correction of other research works and remains a professor at the Montreal Institute of Neurology and in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University.
Although she married Peter Milner in 1944, Brenda has always been committed to neuropsychologya science to which she owes everything, and vice versa. With her memory intact, Milner has never stopped delving into the memories of her patients, trying to find out everything she can about the gears that make the human brain work, whose mysteries we know, in part, thanks to her.
It is not surprising that, with such a long career, he has received numerous honorary doctorates and countless awards, such as the National Academy of Sciences Award in Neuroscience or the Bremio BalzanHe is also a Fellow of both the Royal Society of London and the Royal Society of Canada.
The life and discoveries of this great scientist are undoubtedly still in the memories of millions of people. Despite her longevity, there is no doubt that her legacy will outlive her for many more years.