{"id":5971,"date":"2014-12-08T09:38:19","date_gmt":"2014-12-08T14:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/?p=5971"},"modified":"2014-12-08T09:38:19","modified_gmt":"2014-12-08T14:38:19","slug":"nobel-prize-awarded-to-scientists-for-discovering-the-brains-inner-gps-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/2014\/12\/08\/nobel-prize-awarded-to-scientists-for-discovering-the-brains-inner-gps-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Nobel Prize Awarded to Scientists for Discovering the Brain’s “Inner GPS”"},"content":{"rendered":"

How does the brain map our surroundings, and how does it help us navigate our complex environment?<\/p>\n

The answer\u00a0to this question, which has\u00a0long baffled philosophers and scientists, was elucidated through scientific discoveries within behavioral neuroscience made in\u00a0the past few decades.<\/p>\n

Dr. John O\u2019Keefe, a neuroscientist and alumnus of CUNY City College (Class of 1963), was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2014. He shares the prize\u00a0with the Norwegian scientists May-Birtt Moser and Edvard Moser\u00a0for\u00a0the discovery of \u201ccells that constitute a positioning system in the brain.\u201d This discovery is akin to an \u201cinner GPS\u201d in the brain that makes it possible for us\u00a0to orient ourselves in space. It demonstrates that higher cognitive function has a cellular basis for its processes.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
Photo via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

O\u2019Keefe is CCNY\u2019s tenth Nobel laureate and CUNY\u2019s thirteenth. He is currently Director of the Sainsbury Welcome Centre in Neural Circuits and Behavior at University College London (UCL). In 1971, O\u2019Keefe discovered the first component of the brain positioning system when he realized\u00a0that a type of neuron (nerve cell) in the hippocampus (part of the brain that stores memory) was always activated when a rat was at a certain place in a room, and other neurons were activated when the rat was at other places. O\u2019Keefe concluded that the hippocampus forms a map of the room through these \u201cplace cells,\u201d playing a role in the\u00a0representation of the spatial environment in the brain.<\/p>\n

Three decades later, in 2005, the Moser lab identified another group of nerve cells called \u201cgrid cells,\u201d which generate a coordinate system and allow for precise position and navigation. In their research with rats, they found a pattern of activity in a part of the brain known as the entorhinal cortex, neighboring the hippocampus. The grid cells network\u00a0with the place cells in the hippocampus by forming networks that comprise the inner GPS in the brain.<\/p>\n

The contributions that these Nobel Laureates have made to this field are significant in advancing our\u00a0understanding of cognitive processes. Higher cognitive functions such as memory, thinking, and planning involve groups of specialized cells working together to carry out these processes.\u00a0This discovery\u00a0may help us better investigate the mechanisms behind the devastating loss of spatial memory that affects people with brain disorders, such as\u00a0dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How does the brain map our surroundings, and how does it help us navigate our complex environment? The answer\u00a0to this question, which has\u00a0long baffled philosophers and scientists, was elucidated through scientific discoveries within behavioral neuroscience made in\u00a0the past few decades. Dr. John O\u2019Keefe, a neuroscientist and alumnus of CUNY City College (Class of 1963), was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":703,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[325,453,1136,1512,1542,1682],"class_list":["post-5971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","tag-brain","tag-city-college","tag-john-okeefe","tag-neuroscience","tag-nobel-prize-2014","tag-physiology-or-medicine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/703"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5971\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}