Congratulations to Dr. John O'Keefe, Dr. Edvard Moser and his wife Dr. May-Britt Moser. Dr. John O'Keef is a graduate from my alma mater in the City University of New York! It is a proud moment for all students past and present of CUNY.
These three researchers won the Nobel Peace Prize for their research on how the brain is able to determine location. In other words, it has long been theorized that our brains have a natural "GPS system" similar to that of birds which rely on the magnetic poles to calculate their location and which direction to migrate to during the change of seasons.
Dr. O'Keefe is a member of the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University College of London. While doing his research on rats, he found that there were certain nerve cells in the brain that became active as the rat was in various locations. These cells come from the hippocampus and they created a schema or map of an environment.
This research can help people with memory problems, especially Alzheimer's disease.
Again, I am extremely proud to be a graduate of the City University of New York and I congratulate these three researchers on their work and for winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
Source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/11143190/British-professor-wins-Nobel-Prize-for-medicine.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/10/06/nobel-prize-in-medicine-awarded-for-discovery-of-brains-gps/
http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/news/nobel-laureate.cfm
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