News & Media
Neuro News - April 2005
Director's Corner - Times have changed
By John A. Robson, PhD Associate Director, Scientific Affairs
Last month Dave wrote about the modern controversy of evolution vs. creation science. It reminded me of a story from a book by John Gribbin, The Scientists, about Charles Darwin, Alfred Wallace and the Theory of Natural Selection. It is an interesting commentary about scientific politics and publication policy.
By the mid-1830s Darwin had collected voluminous evidence in favour of evolution but he lacked a framework - a mechanism - for why it occurred. Then in 1838 he read an essay by the famous 19th century economist Thomas Malthus on the governing principles of population growth. Malthus’ models focused on the growth of human populations but he also noted that most wild animal species were fairly stable in number. He argued that this stability was the result of destructive forces from predators, limited food supplies, drought, disease etc. Darwin realized that, in the struggle to survive, the members of each species whose individual traits were best suited to overcome adverse pressures would have an advantage for survival and, as these traits were carried forward in future generations, they would lead to adaptive changes in the species. That was the missing mechanism! By 1839, a full 20 years before publication of The Origin of the Species, Darwin had written an outline of the theory of Natural Selection and by 1844 he had written a 50,000 word manuscript.
Darwin refused to take his ideas public because his wife Emma was a devout Christian and he was afraid of the personal and public controversies that his discoveries would ignite. So he guarded his ideas, revealing them only to a few trusted friends in the Royal Society and making arrangements for his manuscript to be published after his death. His colleagues encouraged him not to wait, warning him that it was only a matter of time until someone else developed the same ideas, but Darwin remained firm. Then in 1858 he received a manuscript from a young surveyor-turned-naturalist named Alfred Wallace who was also inspired by Malthus. Darwin was shocked to find his ideas perfectly reproduced in this manuscript. Instead of responding to Wallace he forwarded the paper to colleagues in the Royal Society, Charles Lyell and Joseph Hooker, who knew of Darwin’s theory. These two did not want their friend to be pre-empted so they took action. Without consulting either scientist, they attached Darwin’s outline to Wallace’s manuscript and published them as a single paper, presented to the Linnean Society in July 1858, with Darwin as the lead author!
This would have created a scandal today. Wallace certainly would have filed a formal complaint and demanded a correction. He might even have sued the editors for their cavalier action, but in 1858 he did neither. In fact, he was thrilled! Being linked to Darwin was an honor that raised his credibility and stature in the scientific community. With his ideas now public Darwin was compelled to write The Origin of the Species, which he published a year later. Looking back, Darwin was correct in anticipating the controversy that his findings would initiate. Even so, in today’s rush to publish scientific results, sometimes prematurely, it is hard to imagine anyone sitting on an idea as important as Natural Selection for 20 years! Modern granting agencies wouldn’t like it!
Please send any comments about the Director's Corner to David Colman
Recent News
Milner wins prestigious Gairdner Award
Dr. Brenda Milner, recognized as a founder of cognitive neuroscience, was
named a 2005 winner of the prestigious Gairdner Award. Dr. Milner, the
Dorothy J. Killam Professor at the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI),
and Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill
University, was awarded the prize for her pioneering research in memory.
Dr. Milner, originally from England, began her doctoral research in the 1950’s with Dr. Donald Hebb in the Department of Psychology at McGill University. With Dr. Hebb’s encouragement, she came to the MNI to work with Dr. Wilder Penfield. Her careful empirical work with patients helped Dr. Penfield define functional areas of the brain, important information for a neurosurgeon. Over several decades, Dr. Milner studied HM, a post-surgical patient made famous by her studies, and identified multiple memory systems by teasing out his cognitive capabilities and deficits. While HM was unable to remember recent events, he was able to learn new motor tasks. In all their years of association, HM never remembered from one time to another that he had met Dr. Milner nor that he had practiced a drawing skill under her direction. Designing a series of subtle experiments for HM, Dr. Milner was able to demonstrate two different memory systems. As evidence of her scientific skill and insight, it would be 25 years before other scientists developed experimental models of animal behaviour to study episodic and procedural memory systems.
Currently, Dr. Milner uses non-invasive brain imaging technology to study the functional specialization in the right and left brain hemispheres, and is particularly interested in the role of the right hemisphere in remembering the location of objects. Active in research and teaching, Dr. Milner is asked frequently to speak at scientific meetings and at universities around the world.
The Gairdner Awards were established by Toronto businessman James Gairdner to honour outstanding achievement in medical science. Since their inception in 1959, 274 scientists have received the award and 64 have gone on to win a Nobel prize. The 2005 awardees were recently announced at a Toronto luncheon and will receive their awards and $30,000 cash prizes at a gala dinner in October. Dr. Milner and Dr. Endel Tulving, from the University of Toronto, are among the six prominent scientists honoured with the award this year.
Brain Awareness Week: a smash hit
Brain Awareness Week culminated at the Neuro on March 18 with an engaging
open-house for more than 100 elementary school students. After touring the
labs, the students showed off their enthusiasm and new knowledge in a brain
quiz, and each went home with an MNI stress relieving toy brain. Special
thanks to Penelope Kostopoulos (Petrides’ lab) and her team for their
effort to make this week of educational activities such a success.
Upcoming Events
The Challenges of Movement Disorders
Brain Awareness Week will be celebrated across Montreal when neuroscience
Dr. Eva Andermann has organized the Second International
Neuroacanthocytosis Symposium at the MNI, April 17 to 21.
Neuroacanthocytosis, a rare, genetically linked movement disorder, occurs
in children and adults and is characterized by degeneration in the basal
ganglion and loss of neurons in the brain and spinal cord. Researchers will
report on recent work that identified molecular changes associated with
this disease and on efforts to correlate specific genetic abnormalities
with the clinical features of this often fatal disease. All are welcome (no
registration fee). Please register with Dr. Eva Andermann (514-398-8529).
Knowledge = Better Quality of Life
Over 2000 Canadians cannot take for granted the ability to move: they
are afflicted with the autoimmune disorder Myasthenia Gravis (MG). MG
attacks the body’s intricate immune system, leaving many patients so weak
that simple tasks like walking in the park, climbing stairs and even rising
from a chair become very difficult.
The Neuro Patient Resource Centre in collaboration with Muscular Dystrophy Canada is sponsoring a Myasthenia Gravis conference, April 16 in the Jeanne Timmins Amphitheatre from 1 to 4 pm. The conference will provide information about the disease, new treatments and recent research advances, and will be a forum to address issues of concern to patients and their families. Dr. Daniel Gendron, Director of the EMG Laboratory at the Neuro, will speak and two MG patients will discuss their personal experiences. The conference is free and open to the public. To register, contact: Pascale Rousseau, Muscular Dystrophy Canada, at (514) 393-3522 x 231 or pascale.rousseau@muscle.ca.
Brain Waves Gala
Four Spiritual and Community Animators from the English Montreal School
Board, Regions 1 and 3, will hold a Brain Waves musical fundraising gala to
raise money for the Franco Di Giovanni Fund at the Montreal Neurological
Institute and Hospital. Students from Laurier Macdonald High School and
John Paul 1 Jr. High in St. Léonard, Royal West Academy in Montreal West
and Royal Vale School in N.D.G. will participate. Students from Saint Pius
x Culinary Arts Department will provide the hors d’oeurves.
The gala will be at the Leonardo Da Vinci Center in St. Léonard on Tuesday. April 19 from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. At that show we will honour two special guests; Lucia Eufemia, a 17-year-old Brain Tumour cancer survivor, and Dr. Rolando Del Maestro, neurosurgeon and clinical director of the Brain Tumour Research Center at the Montreal Neurological Institute. Tickets are $20. For more information call Spiritual Community Animator Vince Lacroce (483-7200. Ext. 1105) or email him at brainwavesgala@emsb.qc.ca.
Congratulations to…
CIHR Postdoctoral Awardee - Brigitte Ritter (Peter
McPherson).
CIHR Doctoral Awardees - Rosanne Aleong (Tomas Paus),
Deborah Maret (Rolando Del Maestro) and Timothy Wai (Eric Shoubridge).
Director - David R. Colman, PhD
Senior Management - Mark Angle, MD; Tom Gevas; Marilyn Kaplow; Elizabeth
Kofron, PhD; Patricia O'Connor; Catherine Rowe
MNI Bulletin Editors: Elizabeth Kofron, PhD & Sandra McPherson,
PhD
Please send any items for the MNI Bulletin to Sandra McPherson or Beth Kofron.
