Doreen Kimura

Doreen Kimura FRSC
Born	Doreen Goebel (1933-02-15)February 15, 1933 Winnipeg, Manitoba
Died	February 27, 2013(2013-02-27) (aged 80) Vancouver, British Columbia
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	University of Western Ontario Simon Fraser University
Thesis	Visual and auditory perception after temporal-lobe damage (1961)
Doctoral advisor	Brenda Milner
Other academic advisors	Woodburn Heron
Doctoral students	Liisa Galea

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]

Biography

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]

Work

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]

Awards and honours

• 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]

Books

• 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

References

1. "Doreen Kimura – Obituaries – London, ON – Your Life Moments". Yourlifemoments.ca. Retrieved 2013-03-14.
2. "Dr. Doreen Kimura". Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour & Cognitive Science. Archived from the original on 2019-04-21. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
3. Hampson, Elizabeth; Seligman, Clive (April 2013). "Obituary - Doreen Kimura 1933-2013". Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
4. Kimura, Doreen (2006). "Recollections of an accidental contrarian". Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology. 60 (1): 80–89. doi:10.1037/cjep2006009. ISSN 1878-7290. PMID 16615720.
5. Kimura, Doreen (2011). "From ear to brain". Brain and Cognition. 76 (2): 214–217. doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2010.11.009. PMID 21236541. S2CID 43450851.
6. Kimura, Doreen (1961). "Cerebral dominance and the perception of verbal stimuli". Canadian Journal of Psychology. 15 (3): 166–171. doi:10.1037/h0083219. ISSN 0008-4255.
7. Kimura, Doreen (1964). "Left-right differences in the perception of melodies". Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 16 (4): 355–358. doi:10.1080/17470216408416391. ISSN 0033-555X. S2CID 145633913.
8. Kimura, D. (1982-06-25). "Left-Hemisphere Control of Oral and Brachial Movements and Their Relation to Communication". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 298 (1089): 135–149. Bibcode:1982RSPTB.298..135K. doi:10.1098/rstb.1982.0077. ISSN 0962-8436. PMID 6125966.
9. Kimura, Doreen (1976), "The Neural Basis of Language Qua Gesture**The research reported here was supported by grants to the author from the National Research Council and the Medical Research Council, Ottawa.", Studies in Neurolinguistics, Elsevier, pp. 145–156, doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-746302-5.50011-6, ISBN 978-0-12-746302-5, retrieved 2019-12-05
10. Kimura, Doreen. (1993). Neuromotor mechanisms in human communication. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505492-X. OCLC 26396505.
11. Kimura, Doreen. (1999). Sex and cognition. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. ISBN 0-585-08769-5. OCLC 42856228.
12. Kimura, Doreen (1996-04-01). "Sex, sexual orientation and sex hormones influence human cognitive function". Current Opinion in Neurobiology. 6 (2): 259–263. doi:10.1016/S0959-4388(96)80081-X. ISSN 0959-4388. PMID 8725969. S2CID 16623727.
13. Kimura, Doreen (2004). "Human sex differences in cognition, fact, not predicament". Sexualities, Evolution & Gender. 6 (1): 45–53. doi:10.1080/14616660410001733597. ISSN 1479-2508.
14. Luckow, Diane (2000-04-06). "Kimura awarded Sterling prize". Simon Fraser University News. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
15. "kimura1". Safs.ca. Retrieved 2013-03-14.
16. "CPA Award Descriptions and Recipients". Canadian Psychological Association. 8 August 2018. Archived from the original on 2010-11-22. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
17. "Doreen Kimura Wins Kistler Prize". www.safs.ca. Retrieved 2019-12-05.

External links

• Doreen Kimura's SFU website
• Biography
• In Memoriam: Dr. Doreen Kimura