Lawrence Weiskrantz | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1926-03-28)28 March 1926 |
| Died | 27 January 2018(2018-01-27) (aged 91) |
| Citizenship | British |
| Alma mater | Swarthmore College |
| Known for | blindsight |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | psychology,neuropsychology,cognitive neuroscience |
| Institutions | Oxford University |
Lawrence WeiskrantzFRS (28 March 1926 – 27 January 2018) was a Britishneuropsychologist. Weiskrantz is credited with discovering the phenomenon ofblindsight, and with establishing the role of theamygdala inemotional learning and emotional behavior.[1] Blindsight is when a person with a brain injury causing blindness can nevertheless detect, point accurately at, and discriminate visually presented objects.[2]
Weiskrantz originally attendedGirard College, a boarding school inPhiladelphia, due in part to the death of his father when he was six.[3] After graduating, he attendedSwarthmore College and served inWorld War II.[3] Shortly before his graduation, he was awarded a Catherwood fellowship atOxford University.[3]
Weiskrantz became Professor of Psychology at Oxford University where he remained a full professor until retirement in 1993.[3] He then became an emeritus professor of the university and an emeritus fellow ofMagdalen College.[3] Weiskrantz had a lifelong interest in the writings and research of the Russian neuropsychologistAlexander Luria, whom he had met and befriended while Luria was still doing research.[4] The two remained colleagues until Luria's death in 1977.[4] In the 1950s Weiskrantz went on to ellucidate the region of thetemporal lobe responsible for the erratic emotional behaviors inKlüver-Bucy syndrome, a phenomenon known since the 1930 which came to inspire thelimbic brain hypothesis ofemotion.[1] Although this hypothesis did not live to its claims, Weiskrantz usedinstrumentalfear conditioning in lesioned animals to identify the temporal structure responsible forKlüver-Bucy syndrome.[1] Ever since, theamygdala has remained crucial in the scientific understanding of emotion.[1] Weiskrantz is generally credited with having discovered the phenomenon ofblindsight following his book on this subject in 1986, which is the voluntary visually evoked response to a stimulus presented within ascotoma.[4]
Academic and service positions he held included:
Weiskrantz supervised at least 10PhDs, includingAlan Cowey,Charles Gross,Nicholas Humphrey,Susan Iversen, andMelvyn A. Goodale.
Weiskrantz was elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society in 1980.[5][6] He was on its council in 1988–1989.[3] He was a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and of Academia Europaea.[3] Weiskrantz served on the Council of the Fyssen Foundation.[3]
Weiskrantz was a medalist of the Royal Society of Medicine and a medalist of the American Association for Advancement of Science.[3] He delivered the Heisenberg Lecture of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences/Siemens Foundation and the Ferrier Lecture of the Royal Society.[3] In 1997 he was awarded with an honorary doctorate atTilburg University, the Netherlands.
