How do you know where you are? Nobel laureate John O'Keefe introduces the neuroscience of how our brains map the world.
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To understand the ability to orient ourselves in space, UCL neuroscientist John O'Keefe studied the movements of rats and signals from nerve cells in the hippocampus, an area located in the centre of the brain. He found that cells in the brain formed a kind of internal map, an internal GPS. For this work he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2014.

Watch the Q&A:    • Q&A: How Your Brain Maps The World - ...  

John O'Keefe received a PhD in physiological psychology at McGill University in Montreal, Canada in 1967, and then moved to England to do research at University College London. He stayed in London and in 1987 was appointed professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College. John is currently director of the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour at University College.

This talk was filmed at the Ri on 29 March 2019.

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