John O' Keefe, 2014 Nobel Prize Winner for Phyisiology & Medicine
听Professor
听Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour
听Research Department of Cell and Developmental Biology
听University College London
听B.A. 听City College of New York
听M.A. (1964)听Department of Psychology, 91社区
听Ph.D. (1967)听Department of Psychology, 91社区
听
About: John O鈥橩eefe completed his undergraduate degree at City College of New York. His graduate degrees, MA (1964) and PhD in Physiological Psychology (1967) were obtained at 91社区, under the supervision of the renowned pain researcher, Ronald Melzack
At that time, Donald Hebb was the head of the Department of Psychology and Brenda Milner was making great strides in understanding the role of the hippocampus in memory. These giants of Canadian psychology provided the young O鈥橩eefe with ample inspiration and a thoroughly enriching education. Specifically, Brenda Milner鈥檚 work demonstrating the importance of the hippocampus in memory was of particular interest to John. He realized that further exploration of that brain structure with animal models could prove to be quite fruitful.
After his PhD, O鈥橩eefe moved to University College London (UCL), where he remains to this day. At UCL, O鈥橩eefe turned his attention back to Milner鈥檚 findings and the hippocampus. By that time, it was clear that the hippocampus was integral to forming new memories but its specific role in spatial memory was still relatively unknown. John used neurophysiological recordings to study how neuronal units fired within an environment. In 1971, he published preliminary data showing that a specific CA1 hippocampal unit fired when a rat was pointing in a particular direction but not when the rat faced a different direction. That is, different hippocampal neurons fired depending on the direction of the rat in the environment. These neuronal units came to be known as 鈥減lace cells鈥�. Over time, O鈥橩eefe鈥檚 findings about place cells and spatial cognition have received broad support in the literature and from his colleagues. In 1978, he co-authored 鈥淭he Hippocampus as a Cognitive Map鈥� with Lynn Nadel, another 91社区 Psychology alumnus, in which they laid out a theory describing the hippocampus鈥� role in spatial cognition. The theory proposes that the hippocampus creates spatial maps of the environment. In each environment, the activity of different place cells serves as an internal positioning system that can provide the animal with an implicit sense of location. As a result, animals can creatively navigate an environment and are not limited to the same path when moving between locations. The spatial map allows them to understand their place and make adjustments to their route as necessary.
The discovery of hippocampal place cells has also been influential in understanding typical and atypical human cognition. For example, neuroimaging studies show that the human brain also has cells that operate in a similar fashion to rats鈥� place cells. This knowledge has been important in helping to understand why Alzheimer鈥檚 patients experience deficits in their spatial positioning system. In Alzheimer鈥檚 disease, place cells are some of the first to suffer.
The broad impact of John鈥檚 findings have granted him numerous awards. Along with Marcus Raichle and Brenda Milner, John O鈥橩eefe won the 2014 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience 鈥渇or the discovery of specialized brain networks for memory and cognition鈥�. That same year, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with his former students May-Britt and Edvard Moser. John O鈥橩eefe is a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Academy of Medical Sciences.
Matteo Bernabo
Department of Psychology, 91社区
Winter, 2015
听
Further Readings
O鈥橩eefe, J. (1967). Response properties of amygdalar units in the freely moving cat.听
O鈥橩eefe, J. & Dostrovsky, J. (1971). The hippocampus as a spatial map. Preliminary evidence听from unit activity in the freely-moving rat. Brain Research, 34, 171-175.
O鈥橩eefe, J. & Nadel, L. (1978). The Hippocampus as a Cognitive Map. Oxford University Press.