Marcel Kinsbourne
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Marcel Kinsbourne (3 November 1931 – 21 April 2024) was an Austrian-born pediatric
neurologist Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous system, which comprises the brain, the ...
and cognitive neuroscientist who was an early pioneer in the study of brain lateralization.


Background

Kinsbourne was born in
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
, Austria on 3 November 1931. He obtained his M.D. degree (styled B.M., BCh., Oxon.) in 1955 and D.M. degree in 1963 at
Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
, where he served on the Psychology Faculty from 1964, before relocating to the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
in 1967. He held Professorships in both
neurology Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix wikt:-logia, -logia, "study of") is the branch of specialty (medicine) , medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous syst ...
and
psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
at
Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...
and the
University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...
, and he headed the Behavioral Neurology Research Division at the Shriver Center in
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
,
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
. He also served as Presidents of the
International Neuropsychological Society The International Neuropsychological Society is an international non-profit learned society dedicated to promoting research in neuropsychology. It was established in 1967 with only a few members, with its membership growing to about 5,000 by 2015. ...
and the Society for Philosophy and Psychology. Kinsbourne died in
Winchester, Massachusetts Winchester is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, located 8.2 miles (13.2 km) north of downtown Boston as part of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. It is also one of the List of Massachusetts locations by per capit ...
on 21 April 2024, at the age of 92.


Work

Kinsbourne was the first to identify and systematically describe the infant disorder "opsoclonus myoclonus" syndrome, sometimes called Kinsbourne syndrome in his honor. He also was first to describe "hiatus hernia" with contortions of the neck, subsequently called Sandifer Syndrome in honor of his mentor, Dr. Paul Sandifer. Kinsbourne published over 400 articles, including: The Corpus Callosum as a Component of a Circuit for Selection, How the Senses Combine in the Brain, and Disorders of Mental Development. Kinsbourne also published an article titled The Immune System’s Moderating Response to Inflammation Relieves Autistic Behavior: Response to Peter Good. He noticed that each autistic movement is caused by pathologically heightened arousal. He concluded that autistic behaviors can be improved with a fever. If this is true then a remedy for autism maybe a simple stimulation of the vagus nerve. At the same time Kinsbourne wrote two articles which were published in 1993, one being Unity and Diversity in the Human Brain: Evidence from Injury where he talks about cognitive neuropsychology, and the other article Awareness of Deficit After Brain Injury: Clinical and Theoretical Issues where he talks about the systematic review he performs for certain types of disorders. Kinsbourne was the co-chair of the Department of Psychology at
The New School The New School is a Private university, private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for p ...
. Kinsbourne has published around 400 articles in multiple areas of
cognitive neuroscience Cognitive neuroscience is the scientific field that is concerned with the study of the Biology, biological processes and aspects that underlie cognition, with a specific focus on the neural connections in the brain which are involved in mental ...
, including brain-behavior relations,
contralateral brain The contralateral organization of the forebrain (Latin: contra‚ against; latus‚ side; lateral‚ sided) is the property that the Cerebral hemisphere, hemispheres of the cerebrum and the thalamus represent mainly the contralateral side of the b ...
organization, consciousness, imitation, laterality among normal and abnormal populations, memory and amnestic disorders, unilateral neglect, attention and
Attention Deficit Disorder Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, and emotional dysregulation that are excessive and pervasive, impairing in multiple con ...
,
autism Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by differences or difficulties in social communication and interaction, a preference for predictability and routine, sensory processing d ...
,
learning disabilities Learning disability, learning disorder, or learning difficulty (British English) is a condition in the brain that causes difficulties comprehending or processing information and can be caused by several different factors. Given the "difficulty ...
,
intellectual disability Intellectual disability (ID), also known as general learning disability (in the United Kingdom), and formerly mental retardation (in the United States), Rosa's Law, Pub. L. 111-256124 Stat. 2643(2010).Archive is a generalized neurodevelopmental ...
, and
dyslexia Dyslexia (), previously known as word blindness, is a learning disability that affects either reading or writing. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, wri ...
. Later publications include: Somatic Twist: A Model for the Evolution of Decussation (2013); Imitation and Entrainment: Brain Mechanisms and Social Consequences (2004); The Corpus Callosum as a Component of a Circuit for Selection (2003); How the Senses Combine in the Brain (2003); The Brain and Body Awareness (2002); Adult ADHD: Controlled Medical Assessment (2001); Dynamic Self-Organization of the Cerebral Network (2001); Disorders of Mental Development (2000); Unity and Diversity in the Human Brain: Evidence from Injury (1998); Time and the Observer: The Where and When of Consciousness in the Brain (1992). 0


See also

* Functional cerebral distance, a principle developed by Kinsbourne


References

Liederman, Jacqueline. "Marcel Kinsbourne". Encyclopedia of the History of the Psychological Theories. Springer Science+Business Media. Retrieved 14 October 2013. Blakeslee, S. (1999, January 19). New Theories of Depression Focus on Brain's Two Sides. New York Times "Marcel Kinsbourne - Professor of Psychology". Newschool.edu. Retrieved 2013-09-30. "Marcel Kinsbourne - Dana Foundation". Dana.org. Retrieved 2013-09-30. "Marcel Kinsbourne - Professor of Psychology". Newschool.edu. Retrieved 2013-09-30. "University of Toronto Libraries" (PDF). https://journals.scholarsportal.info/. Retrieved 2013-09-30. Marcel Kinsbourne Daedalus (Spring 1998). "Unity and Diversity in the Human Brain: Evidence from Injury". pp. 233–256. Awareness of Deficit After Brain Injury: Clinical and Theoretical Issues Kinsbourne, Marcel. The American Journal of Psychiatry150. 11 (November 1993): pp.1740-1741 "Marcel Kinsbourne - *Professor of Psychology". Newschool.edu. Retrieved 2013-09-30. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kinsbourne, Marcel 1931 births 2024 deaths Austrian neurologists Austrian neuroscientists Alumni of the University of Oxford Austrian emigrants to the United States The New School faculty Tufts University faculty Pediatric neurologists Dyslexia researchers