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Doreen Kimura FRSC (February 15, 1933 – February 27, 2013) was a Canadian psychologist who was professor at the University of Western Ontario and professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University.[1] Kimura was recognized for her contributions to the field of neuropsychology and later, her advocacy for academic freedom.[2] She was the founding president of the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship.[3]
Doreen Kimura | |
|---|---|
| Born | Doreen Goebel February 15, 1933 |
| Died | February 27, 2013 (aged 80) |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Citizenship | Canadian |
| Alma mater | McGill University |
| Children | 1 |
| Awards | Donald O. Hebb Award for Distinguished Contributions to Canadian Psychology as a Science |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Neuropsychology |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | Visual and auditory perception after temporal-lobe damage (1961) |
| Doctoral advisor | Brenda Milner |
| Other academic advisors | Woodburn Heron |
| Doctoral students | Liisa Galea |
Kimura was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and grew up in the village of Neudorf, Saskatchewan.[3] Kimura was finishing her final year of high school via correspondence while teaching in a one-room schoolhouse in Northern Manitoba when she applied to and won an entrance scholarship to McGill University in Montreal.[4]
Kimura went on to earn bachelor's, master's, and doctoral (in 1961) degrees from McGill.[3] Woodburn Heron supervised her master's thesis.[5] She conducted her doctoral research at the Montreal Neurological Institute under the supervision of neuroscientist Brenda Milner (co-supervised by Donald O. Hebb).[2][3][5]
Kimura joined the faculty at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, in 1967, and remained there for the rest of her career.[3] In 1974, she established the Neuropsychology Unit at London’s University Hospital (now London Health Sciences Centre).[2]
She had one daughter, named Charlotte Thistle Archer.[3] Kimura died on February 27, 2013, at age 80, in Vancouver.[3]
Kimura's early work, starting in the 1960s, assessed differences in the language and music processing capabilities of the two hemispheres of the brain.[6][7] She demonstrated that right-handed subjects have a right-ear superiority for the reception of words and numbers, and left-ear superiority for the perception of melodies; she concluded that these superiorities must reflect the processing specializations of the left and right hemispheres of the brain.[2][6][7] Kimura was among the first researchers to use dichotic listening tests in her work, a non-invasive method for studying the lateral asymmetry of auditory processing in the brain.[2][5]
Kimura studied healthy individuals, as well as patients with apraxia and aphasia, to draw conclusions about the neurological underpinnings of communication.[2][8][9] Her 1993 monograph, Neuromotor Mechanisms in Human Communication,[10] summarized her research in this area over the prior two decades.[2]
Kimura's later interests included the relationship between sex and cognition and promoting academic freedom.[2][3] In a number of publications, including her 2000 book Sex and Cognition,[11] she suggested that cognitive and behavioural differences between males and females can be attributed to the influence of sex hormones on brain development.[12][13] This work has been met with criticism by those who assert that gender differences are better explained by the influences of society and culture.[14] In a special issue of the journal Canadian Psychology, Kimura argued against affirmative action for women in academia, calling it "demeaning" to women.[15]
- 1985: Award for Distinguished Contributions to Canadian Psychology as a Science, Canadian Psychological Association[16]
- 2000: Nora and Ted Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy, Simon Fraser University[14]
- 2005: Donald O. Hebb Distinguished Contribution Award, Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour, and Cognitive Science[2]
- 2006: Kistler Prize, Foundation for the Future[17]
- Neuromotor mechanisms in human communication (1993), Oxford: OUP ISBN 0-19-505492-X
- Sex and Cognition (2000), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press ISBN 0-262-61164-3
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