Dr. Wilder Penfield: Dramatic Subject
During Neuroanatomy class this afternoon, students were shown a truly amazing video dramatizing the work of Dr. Wilder Penfield, a surgeon who pioneered the use of cortical stimulation to localize the loci of epileptic seizures.
Without further ado, for your amusement: Dr. Wilder Penfield.
Astra Bryant
Astra is a Neuroscience PhD student co-mentored by Drs. Eric Knudsen and John Huguenard. She uses in vitro slice electrophysiology to study the cellular and synaptic mechanisms linking cholinergic signaling and gamma oscillations – two processes critical for the control of gaze and attention, which are disrupted in many psychiatric disorders. Her main side project is the development of optogenetic approaches in the avian species utilized by the Knudsen lab. Astra is the founder of the Stanford Neuroblog, and is the senior handler of the @stanfordneuro twitter feed. In her spare time (ha!) she reads everything from histories of the British navy to epic fantasy, cycles the Santa Cruz foothills, and uses her family’s Portuguese Water Dog as a grad student therapy animal.
See this post for more on Penfield’s life and work.