The Kavli Prize in Neuroscience 2014

THE KAVLI PRIZE IN NEUROSCIENCE 2014

Summary

The 2014 Kavli Prize for Neuroscience research approaches. They have found a vital example of how nerve cells are goes to Brenda Milner, John O’Keefe and the specific regions of the brain that are involved in memory formation. Marcus E. Raichle “for the discovery of involved in memory, and how specialized specialized brain networks for memory nerve cells perform different roles. Marcus E. Raichle designed methods for and cognition”. visualizing the activity of the normal liv- Brenda Milner identified regions of the ing human brain. These imaging tech- The Norwegian Academy of Science and brain that are specialized for memory niques have allowed his research team, Letters has awarded the 2014 Kavli Prize formation and other cognitive functions. and many other researchers, to discover in Neuroscience to three scientists whose which regions of the brain are involved work has led to better understanding of in functions such as reading, attention brain functions such as memory and and memory. Further, he has made planning. Such functions are crucial to important observations of the brain when create our rich mental lives: memory is it is not performing activities, which has essential for humans, from the recogni- transformed the way the human brain is tion of where we are, through learning now being studied in health and new skills, to being able to recall events. disease. In humans memory can be said to define who we are, and we know that loss of memory can have devastating effects on an individual’s personality. Knowing how memory function should work in healthy people could open the door to understanding what has changed in patients with dementia and memory loss.

One of the great challenges for research- She found that a neurological patient ers studying the human brain is working with damage to the hippocampus and out which areas of the brain are involved surrounding regions in the brain could in specific activities, and this itself poses not acquire new memories of events, but a further challenge: how to measure activ- could speak, reason and recall long-past ity in the brain in a way that can be memories. By studying this patient, and repeated and compared, also whilst others, over many years she discovered humans are behaving normally. that certain regions of the brain are needed to form memory. The recipients of the 2014 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience have all played major roles John O’Keefe discovered that the hippo- in advancing our understanding of mem- campus contains nerve cells that are ory and in the development of techniques involved in determining and recognizing to measure the brain. They have discov- where we are. These cells allow detection ered that these functions are produced by of new environments and changes in By Matt Wakelin, PhD specialized systems in the brain, which familiar environments, and can form a Strategic Coordinator, University College they analysed through a variety of ‘cognitive map’. This discovery provided London 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