JONATHAN NACKSTRAND
One British and two Norwegian researchers were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine on Monday. U.S.-born John O’Keefe, a British citizen, and May‐Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser of Norway were selected for their work identifying the brain’s positioning system. The Nobel Assembly praised the scientists for discovering how the brain has an “internal GPS.” This GPS helps explain how the brain creates “a map of the space surrounding us and how we can navigate our way through a complex environment,” the Nobel panel said. The discovery may help scientists better comprehend how and why Alzheimer’s patients suffer spatial-memory loss. O’Keefe discovered the first component of the brain positioning system in 1971. The Mosers identified another type of nerve cell involved with the system more than 30 years later.