American John O’Keefe and Norwegians May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser on Monday won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of nerve cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain.
The trio were lauded for discovering “an ‘inner GPS’ in the brain that makes it possible to orient ourselves in space,” the Karolinska Institute said.
“The discoveries of John O ?Keefe, May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser 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?” said the Stockholm-based medical university, which awards the prize.
May-Britt Moser tweeted shortly after the announcement, “I’m still in shock. This is so great.”
Her husband is unaware of the win because he is on a plane bound for Munich, Germany, said Juleen Zierath, chairwoman of the Nobel Committee.
Committee secretary Goran Hansson reached O’Keefe, who was “delighted” over winning the prize, Zierath said on the Nobel Prize website.
O’Keefe, who won one-half of the award, set off the discoveries in 1971 when he uncovered the first component of this positioning system during research with rats.
Nerve cells in the hippocampus area of the brain were activated when rats were in certain areas of a room. Different nerve cells lit up for different areas of the room.
“O’?Keefe concluded that these ‘place cells’ formed a map of the room,” the institute said.
The Mosers – who won the other half of the prize, which is worth 8 million kronor (1.1 million dollars) – discovered so-called grid cells in 2005, which are another part of the brain’s positioning system.
They were also conducting research on rats, mapping connections in the hippocampus as the rats moved around a room, when they found a pattern of activity in the nearby entorhinal cortex.
Nerve cells in that part of the brain responded when the rats passed multiple locations in a grid.
The Mosers determined that these grid cells allow the brain to establish a coordinate system, recognize precise positions and navigate. Their subsequent research showed how place and grid cells form circuits in the brain, constituting its inner GPS, the institute said.
Recent research showed place and grid cells also exist in people.
Together, the research by O’Keefe and the Mosers demonstrates “a cellular basis for higher cognitive function” and could, for example, held illuminate how Alzheimer’s patients frequently get lost and do not recognize where they are, the institute said.
“The discovery of the brain’s positioning system represents a paradigm shift in our understanding of how ensembles of specialized cells work together to execute higher cognitive functions,” the medical school said. “It has opened new avenues for understanding other cognitive processes, such as memory, thinking and planning.”
The medicine prize was the first of this year’s Nobels to be awarded. Prizes for physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics will be announced over the next week.
With the exception of economics, the prizes were endowed by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel (1833-96), the inventor of dynamite.
The awards ceremony is held each year on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death.
GNA
