John O'Keefe

John O'Keefe

John O'Keefe in 2014

Born	Birth date -1st March 1966
Birth place	New York City, USA
Nationality	American-British
Known for	Discovery of place cells
Awards	Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2014)

John O'Keefe (born November 18, 1939) is an American-British neuroscientist renowned for his discovery of place cells in the hippocampus, a finding that has significantly advanced our understanding of the brain's spatial memory and navigation systems. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2014, alongside May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser, for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain.

Early Life and Education

John O'Keefe was born in New York City to Irish immigrant parents. He completed his undergraduate studies at the City College of New York, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1963. He then pursued graduate studies at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1967. His doctoral research focused on the physiological psychology of the hippocampus.

Career and Research

After completing his Ph.D., O'Keefe moved to England to work as a postdoctoral fellow at University College London (UCL). It was here that he began his groundbreaking research on the hippocampus. In 1971, O'Keefe and his colleague Jonathan Dostrovsky published a seminal paper describing "place cells" in the hippocampus of rats. These neurons were shown to become active when the animal was in a specific location in its environment, suggesting that the hippocampus functions as a cognitive map.

O'Keefe's work laid the foundation for the field of spatial memory and navigation. His research demonstrated that the hippocampus is not only involved in memory formation but also in the representation of space. This discovery has had profound implications for understanding how the brain encodes and retrieves spatial information.

Nobel Prize and Later Work

In 2014, John O'Keefe was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, sharing it with May-Britt and Edvard Moser, who discovered grid cells in the entorhinal cortex, another component of the brain's positioning system. Together, these discoveries have provided a comprehensive understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying spatial navigation.

O'Keefe continues to conduct research at UCL, where he is a professor of cognitive neuroscience. His current work focuses on the neural basis of memory and the role of the hippocampus in cognitive processes.

Personal Life

John O'Keefe holds dual citizenship in the United States and the United Kingdom. He has been a prominent figure in the scientific community, advocating for the importance of basic research in neuroscience.

Also see

• Place cells
• Grid cells
• Hippocampus
• Cognitive map
• Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine