The Kavli Prize in Neuroscience 2014

THE KAVLI PRIZE IN NEUROSCIENCE 2014

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has decided to award the Kavli Prize in Neuroscience for 2014 to

Brenda Milner Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Quebec, Canada

John O’Keefe University College London, UK

Marcus E. Raichle Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, MO, USA

“for the discovery of specialized brain networks for memory and cognition”

The higher cognitive functions of our Brenda Milner discovered regions of the This discovery provides a sterling exam- brains such as attention, memory, and brain specialized for memory formation ple of neuronal signalling in a specific planning are essential to our ability to and other cognitive functions. She found brain region that is involved in memory create rich mental lives. The three Kavli that HM, a neurological patient with formation. laureates discovered that these functions damage to the hippocampus and sur- are produced by specialized brain sys- rounding regions, could not acquire new Marcus E. Raichle designed methods for tems, which they analyzed at different memories of events, but could speak, monitoring the human brain activity. levels – from single neurons to brain reason and recall long-past memories. By These techniques permitted the quantita- regions and interconnected networks. studying this patient and others, she dis- tive measurements of blood flow and covered that the medial temporal lobes metabolism in localized regions of the are needed to form one kind of memory, brain and provided the basis for all mod- which we now call episodic memory, and ern functional imaging studies. They not for other kinds of memory like pro- allowed mental operations such as read- cedural memory. She made similar dis- ing, attention and memory to be associ- coveries of specialized functions within ated with activity in specialized networks the frontal lobes for planning and orga- of brain regions, present in all human nizing behavioural sequences. brains. Raichle’s observation of system- atic patterns of ongoing brain activity John O’Keefe discovered that the hippo- when the subject is in a resting state has campus contains neurons that encode an transformed the way the human brain is animal’s specific location. These place now being studied in health and cells allow detection of novelty and disease. changes in familiar environments and collectively form a cognitive map critical for animal navigation behaviour. The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Drammensveien 78, 0271 Oslo, Norway Phone +47 22 12 10 90 Fax +47 22 12 10 99 www.dnva.no