A SECOND-generation Irish neuroscientist has been awarded a Nobel Prize for his ground-breaking work.
University College London (UCL) Professor John O’Keefe was today (October 6) awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering an ‘inner GPS’ that helps the brain to navigate.
Professor O’Keefe, whose father is from Co. Cork and mother was from Mayo, won the award jointly with Professors May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
“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,” the Nobel Assembly said.
“It has opened new avenues for understanding other cognitive processes, such as memory, thinking and planning.”
Professor O’Keefe discovered the first component of this positioning system in 1971 when he found a type of nerve cell that became activated whenever a rat was in one location in a room, with a different set of cells active when the rat was in a different area.
In 2005, the Mosers identified a nerve cell that allows for precise positioning and pathfinding. The place cells and nerve cells discovered make it possible for the brain to determine position.
Professor O’Keefe, who is the inaugural Director of the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour at UCL, will also receive honorary doctorate from Ireland’s University College Cork in December.
Professor O’Keefe’s Cork-born father hailed from Scarteen Lower in Newmarket and he still has family living in the area today.
