Nobel Prize 2014 for Medicine Goes to Trio for Discovering Brain’s GPS

The scientists have discovered a
positioning system, an “inner GPS” in the brain that makes it possible to align
ourselves in space, demonstrating a cellular basis for higher cognitive
function.

“The scientists have solved a
problem that has occupied philosophers and scientists for centuries – how does
the brain create a map of the space surrounding us and how can we navigate our
way through a complex environment?” the Nobel Assembly said.

The discovery may help explain
why in Alzheimer’s
disease patients cannot recognize their surroundings.

In 1971, John O’Keefe discovered
the first component of this positioning system. He identified that a type of
nerve cell in an area of the brain called the hippocampus that was always
activated when a rat was at a certain place in a room.

Other nerve cells were turned on
when the rat was at other places. O’Keefe concluded that these “place cells”
formed a map of the room.

John O’Keefewas born in
1939 in New York City, United States of America, and holds both American and
British citizenships. He got his doctoral degree in physiological
psychology from McGill University, Canada in 1967. After this, he moved to
England for postdoctoral training at University College London. He has remained
at University College and was got appointed as Professor of Cognitive
Neuroscience in 1987. John O’Keefe is now working as Director of the Sainsbury
Wellcome Centre in Neural Circuits and Behaviour at University College London.

More than 30 years after, in
2005, May Britt and Edvard Moser identified another key component of the brain’s
positioning system. They found another type of nerve cell, which they called
“grid cells”, that generate a coordinate system and allow for accurate
positioning and path-finding.

Their subsequent study revealed
how place and grid cells make it possible to decide position and to navigate.

May Britt Moser
was born in Fosnavag, Norway in 1963 and holds Norwegian citizenship. She
studied psychology at the University of Oslo together with her future life
partner and co Laureate Edvard Moser. She got her Ph.D. in neurophysiology in
1995. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Edinburgh and also
working as a visiting scientist at University College London. She moved to the
Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim in 1996. May Britt
Moser was appointed Professor of Neuroscience in 2000 and is currently working
as Director of the Centre for Neural Computation in Trondheim.

Edvard I. Moser was born in 1962 in Alesund,
Norway and he holds a Norwegian citizenship. He obtained his doctoral
degree in neurophysiology from the University of Oslo in 1995. He was a
postdoctoral fellow together with co-laureate May Britt Moser at the
University of Edinburgh and later a visiting researcher in John O’Keefe’s
laboratory in London. In 1996, they moved to the Norwegian University of Science
and Technology in Trondheim, where Mr. Moser became Professor in 1998. He is
now working as Director of the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience in
Trondheim.

Source: Medindia