In recent months had received awards foreshadowed the Nobel this year could be very likely the names of this scientific trio: John O’Keefe and marriage May-Britt and Edvard Moser. So suggest some Spanish neuroscientists closest to this type of research, who recalls that in late 2013, O’Keefe and Moser couple received the Horwitz Prize from Columbia University (USA). Were not mistaken, as it was confirmed yesterday.
“ Some of the awards they have received are very important in this field and sometimes are a prelude to the Nobel Prize” says Miguel Maravall, researcher at the Institute of Neuroscience in Alicante . “Somehow, they were already accumulating significant awards. Moreover, they are highly recognized by the scientific community.” Three years ago, on May 13, 2011, had the opportunity to share space with the bed in his office.
Alicante Neuroscience Institute held a seminar given precisely by Edvard and May-Britt Moser on ‘The Grid cells and entorhinal circuit space’ and ‘transition states in networks of hippocampal memory ‘.
During their presentations explained, his view of it from him as a psychologist and neurophysiologist, how they thought the brain gets oriented in space and time, ie, brain gps. “The two did his doctoral thesis in the laboratory of the British John O’Keefe (born 1939), the third part, or the first, depending how you look at the trio Nobel. Approximately 40 years (1971) ago, O’Keefe discovered the first component of this GPS cerebral , a type of nerve cell located in the hippocampus and that “it is always on” when mice are in a certain place in a room, “as stated Jury award in its minutes. Upon discovering that the change of location in the room, the rodent brain activated another group of different cells, O’Keefe concluded that this cell (cells called positioning) family composed a kind of map of the place in our brain.
Years later, in 2005, Norwegians May-Britt Fosnavag and Edvard Moser (fifth marriage receiving a Nobel Prize since the Curies were awarded the 1903 Nobel Physics) discovered that there was another key element in the navigation map that gives information of our position. This neurological mechanism also played an important role the grid (or network) cells, which are involved in a more detailed positioning and location space and allow us to navigate through a complex environment without mislead. In short, highlights Juan Lerma, director of the Institute of Neuroscience in Alicante, “Two findings that represent a kind of three-dimensional map by which we know where we are.”
Lerma also coincided with the marriage seminar Alicante. “This couple has very complementary profiles.” Neuroscience explains the expert, “and s-disciplinary activity and, in this sense, the psychologist and physiologist partnership is complementary “.
The Spanish researcher Maravall has a very similar perception of the couple. “They are very friendly and social, especially her. He is a little more serious. Both are very friendly and have great ability to listen and interact [...] They have traveled around the world to give talks to which they invited them. ” Finally out already, Lerma points out, “this field of research related to the cellular basis of memory is very media.”
According to Maravall, marriage “has created a very large group of researchers, many of them young. Their center is very well funded and this will allow them to make much progress in research to understand how the brain does that to receive a visual or tactile information a mind map to locate us “form.
Studies of these three pioneers of neuroscience were conducted mainly in mice. Recent work with patients undergoing neurosurgical techniques have demonstrated that humans also have this complex neuronal interconnection between place cells and grid cells that allows them to interact and move through physical space.
Here in Spain, exposed Lerma, “ are recording the brain activity of hippocampal cells in relation to issues such as schizophrenia and autism and how these basic brain functions related to cognitive representation space you are altered in diseases such as Alzheimer’s and other dementias. ”
As noted by Felix Hernandez, professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid, “This award serves to underscore the connection between the entorhinal cortex (the grid cells) and the hippocampus.’s Interesting because these two structures They are the first to degenerate in Alzheimer’s and that is when the problems begin memory (not found until the rest of the brain involved no functional problems begin). ”
Your “studies are very important” and should be noted, Professor Hernández emphasizes that marriage Moser read his thesis in 1995 “They were very young (he was 33 and she 32) and that in our field is very difficult. “
No comments:
Post a Comment