Pioneering work on how the nervous system controls movement awarded world’s top brain research prize
An international group of three neuroscientists from Switzerland, Denmark and USA/New Zealand have revealed the nervous system’s inner workings by mapping the neuronal cell types and circuits in the brain and spinal cord that control movement.
Their work has revolutionized our understanding of how we move, research now recognised with the award of the 2022 Brain Prize – the world’s most prestigious prize in neuroscience.
All our interactions with the world depend on our ability to move. Understanding how the nervous system generates movement is a fundamental goal of neuroscience and is at the heart of devising new strategies for the restoration of movement following injury or disease.
Three internationally renowned professors in neuroscience have transformed our understanding of the specific cell types and circuits that control movement: Silvia Arber (Switzerland), Ole Kiehn (Denmark) and Martyn Goulding (USA/New Zealand).
For their ground-breaking work the Lundbeck Foundation will award them the Brain Prize, worth DKK 10 million (approximately $1.5m, €1.3m).
Theirs is not only a remarkable discovery story in fundamental neuroscience, but it also highlights the need and paves the way for cell type-specific diagnostics and interventions in disorders of movement such as ALS, Parkinson’s disease, and spinal cord injury.
“The ability to move is fundamental,” says University of Edinburgh Professor Richard Morris, chair of the Brain Prize Selection Committee. “From the first steps of a baby through to the balance and agility required in riding a bicycle, movement is something we do all the time. Understanding how the brain and spinal cord control movement is a huge scientific challenge. Elegant experimental work by the three recipients has helped uncover how intentions to move are transmitted through the intricate firing of brainstem circuits all the way down to the specific pattern-generating cells of the spinal cord whose activity controls the muscles of the body including the fingers, arms and legs.”
The Brain Prize winners 2022