Brain’s inner GPS wins Nobel Prize

The inner GPS of the brain, which makes it possible for us to orient ourselves in space has won John O’Keefe, and husband and wife team May-Britt and Edvard Moser the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In 1971 at University College London, O’Keefe discovered the first component of this internal positioning system – a nerve cell in the hippocampus that was always activated when a rat was in a certain place in a room. Other nerve cells were activated when the rodent was in a different part of the room, leading O’Keefe to suggest these ‘place cells’ formed a map of the room. In 2005, the Mosers discovered another key component of the system – a nerve cell which they called grid cells. These cells generate a coordinated system and allow for precise positioning and pathfinding. The Norwegian pair noticed certain cells were activated when the rat passed multiple locations arranged in a hexagonal grid – each of these cells activated a unique spatial pattern which collectively constituted a coordinated system allowing for spatial navigation. Together with other cells in the entorhinal cortex, these grid cells recognise the direction of the head and border of the room to form  networks with the place cells in the hippocampus. This circuitry constitutes a comprehensive positioning system in the brain. One half of the 8 million SEK (€0.93 million) prize goes to O’Keefe, the other half is shared between the husband and wife team, who are based at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. The awards were established in the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, and first awarded in 1901. There have been 104 prizes awarded in physiology or medicine, won by 204 laureates. Click here for a factsheet on the prize-winning discoveries. Listen to May-Britt being interviewed about the award by Adam Smith, Chief Scientific Officer at Nobel Media.