Richard G.M. Morris | |
---|---|
Born | Richard Graham Michael Morris 27 June 1948 |
Alma mater | |
Known for | Morris water navigation task |
Awards | 2016 Brain Prize |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Neuroscience |
Institutions | University of Edinburgh |
Richard Graham Michael Morris, CBE FRS FRSE (born 27 June 1948), [1] is a British neuroscientist. He is known for developing the Morris water navigation task, [2] for proposing the concept of synaptic tagging (along with Julietta U. Frey (formerly published under Uwe Frey), and for his work on the function of the hippocampus. [3] [4]
He is the director of the Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems (Edinburgh) [5] and the Wolfson Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh. [6] Since 1994 he has been a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh [7] and since 1997, he has been a fellow of the Royal Society. [8] Morris was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2007. [1]
Morris, together with Tim Bliss (Francis Crick Institute) and Graham Collingridge (University of Bristol) were named as winners of the 2016 Brain Prize for their discoveries about the way synaptic connections in the hippocampus are strengthened by stimulation. The process, known as long-term potentiation (LTP), forms the basis of the ability to learn and to remember. [9]
He was elected Member of the National Academy of Sciences in April 2020. [10]
Morris received his BA in natural science from Trinity Hall, Cambridge and D.Phil. from the University of Sussex in 1973. He was a lecturer at the University of St Andrews from 1977 to 1986 where he developed the Morris water navigation task. He moved to the University of Edinburgh in 1986.
The hippocampus is a major component of the brain of humans and other vertebrates. Humans and other mammals have two hippocampi, one in each side of the brain. The hippocampus is part of the limbic system, and plays important roles in the consolidation of information from short-term memory to long-term memory, and in spatial memory that enables navigation. The hippocampus is located in the allocortex, with neural projections into the neocortex in humans, as well as primates. The hippocampus, as the medial pallium, is a structure found in all vertebrates. In humans, it contains two main interlocking parts: the hippocampus proper, and the dentate gyrus.
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In neuroscience, long-term potentiation (LTP) is a persistent strengthening of synapses based on recent patterns of activity. These are patterns of synaptic activity that produce a long-lasting increase in signal transmission between two neurons. The opposite of LTP is long-term depression, which produces a long-lasting decrease in synaptic strength.
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The hippocampal formation is a compound structure in the medial temporal lobe of the brain. It forms a c-shaped bulge on the floor of the temporal horn of the lateral ventricle. There is no consensus concerning which brain regions are encompassed by the term, with some authors defining it as the dentate gyrus, the hippocampus proper and the subiculum; and others including also the presubiculum, parasubiculum, and entorhinal cortex. The hippocampal formation is thought to play a role in memory, spatial navigation and control of attention. The neural layout and pathways within the hippocampal formation are very similar in all mammals.
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