Thanks, Stephen, for the reference.

And for the record re: Penfield himself.

When he stimulated the temporal lobe of SOME patients (actually a fairly small 
number), he elicited what the patient reported as vivid memories (and also some 
perceptual distortions). Some of the memories were indeed auditory but some 
were also visual.

Penfield, W. (1959). The interpretive cortex. Science, 129, 1719-1725.

Sincerely,

Stuart
___________________________________________________________________
 
Stuart J. McKelvie, Ph.D.,     Phone: (819)822-9600, Extension 2402
Department of Psychology,              Fax: (819)822-9661
Bishop's University,
2600 College Street,
Sherbrooke,
Québec J1M 1Z7,
Canada.
 
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 
Bishop's University Psychology Department Web Page:
http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy
___________________________________________________________
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Sent: February 14, 2008 11:10 PM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
Subject: RE: [tips] Serendipity/ Modern day Penfields

The irrepressible Michael S., back from anabiosis, said:

> It has been reported that a patient undergoing brain surgery 
> to relieve his Parkinson's symptoms began recalling events 
> long thought to be forgotten.It is implied that the future of Alzeimers
> research may involve some form of brain surgery. 

to which Stuart McKelvie asked the usual:

> Michael: 
> 
> Where? 
> 
> Reference, please. 

For the case Michael is likely referring to, the surgery was for obesity, 
not Parkinson's. It consisted of placement of  stimulation electrodes in 
the hypothalamus (an unjustified, dangerous, and irresponsible procedure, 
in my opinion). But the authors did elicit some unverified apparent 
memories of 30 years earlier, said to be vivid and detailed. And they did 
make, again in my opinion, an unwarranted claim that this "finding" could 
be used to treat Alzheimer's.

It was published in the Annals of Neurology:

Memory enhancement induced by hypothalamic/fornix deep brain stimulation 
Clement Hamani, Mary Pat McAndrews, Melanie Cohn, Michael Oh, Dominik 
Zumsteg, Colin M. Shapiro, Richard A. Wennberg, Andres M. Lozano
Published Online: Jan 29 2008, (p 119-123)

I posted about it on Jan 31 with the heading "Alzheimer's breakthrough? 
[I thought not] and with this link to a news item on it:
http://tinyurl.com/34tevq

Stephen
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen L. Black, Ph.D.          
Professor of Psychology, Emeritus   
Bishop's University                e-mail:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
2600 College St.
Sherbrooke QC  J1M 1Z7
Canada

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