Lawrence Weiskrantz

Lawrence Weiskrantz (28 March 1926 – 27 January 2018) was a British neuropsychologist. Weiskrantz is credited with discovering the phenomenon of blindsight, and with establishing the role of the amygdala in emotional learning and emotional behavior. Blindsight is when a person with a brain injury causing blindness can nevertheless detect, point accurately at, and discriminate visually presented objects.

Early life Weiskrantz originally attended Girard College, a boarding school in Philadelphia, due in part to the death of his father when he was six. After graduating, he attended Swarthmore College and served in World War II. The two remained colleagues until Luria's death in 1977. He was on its council in 1988–1989. He was a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and of Academia Europaea. Weiskrantz served on the Council of the Fyssen Foundation.

Weiskrantz was a medalist of the Royal Society of Medicine and a medalist of the American Association for Advancement of Science. He delivered the Heisenberg Lecture of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences/Siemens Foundation and the Ferrier Lecture of the Royal Society. In 1997 he was awarded with an honorary doctorate at Tilburg University, the Netherlands.

Selected publications Analysis of Behavioural Change, 1967 The Neuropsychology of Cognitive Function, 1982 Animal Intelligence, 1985 Blindsight: A case Study and Implications, 1986 Thought Without Language, 1988 Consciousness Lost and Found, 1997