Richard G. Morris

Last updated
Richard G.M. Morris

Born
Richard Graham Michael Morris

(1948-06-27) 27 June 1948 (age 74)
Alma mater
Known for Morris water navigation task
Awards2016 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]

Contents

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]

Education

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.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hippocampus</span> Vertebrate brain region involved in memory consolidation

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cavendish Laboratory</span> University of Cambridge Physics Department

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Long-term potentiation</span> Persistent strengthening of synapses based on recent patterns of activity

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh</span>

The School of Informatics is an academic unit of the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland, responsible for research, teaching, outreach and commercialisation in informatics. It was created in 1998 from the former Department of Artificial Intelligence, the Centre for Cognitive Science and the Department of Computer Science, along with the Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute (AIAI) and the Human Communication Research Centre.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hippocampal formation</span> Region of the temporal lobe in mammalian brains

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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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edvard Moser</span> Norwegian psychologist and neuroscientist

Edvard Ingjald Moser is a Norwegian psychologist and neuroscientist, who is a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. In 2005, he and his then-wife May-Britt Moser discovered grid cells in the brain's medial entorhinal cortex. Grid cells are specialized neurons that provide the brain with a coordinate system and a metric for space. In 2018, he discovered a neural network that expresses your sense of time in experiences and memories] located in the brain's lateral entorhinal cortex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">May-Britt Moser</span> Norwegian psychologist and neuroscientist

May-Britt Moser is a Norwegian psychologist and neuroscientist, who is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). She and her then-husband, Edvard Moser, shared half of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, awarded for work concerning the grid cells in the entorhinal cortex, as well as several additional space-representing cell types in the same circuit that make up the positioning system in the brain. Together with Edvard Moser she established the Moser research environment at NTNU, which they lead. Since 2012 she has headed the Centre for Neural Computation.

James Norman Davidson CBE PRSE FRS was a British biochemist, pioneer molecular biologist and textbook author. The Davidson Building at the University of Glasgow is named for him.

Timothy Vivian Pelham Bliss FRS is a British neuroscientist. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto, and a group leader emeritus at the Francis Crick Institute, London.

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John O'Keefe, is an American-British neuroscientist, psychologist and a professor at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour and the Research Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at University College London. He discovered place cells in the hippocampus, and that they show a specific kind of temporal coding in the form of theta phase precession. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2014, together with May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser; he has received several other awards. He has worked at University College London for his entire career, but also held a part-time chair at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology at the behest of his Norwegian collaborators, the Mosers.

The Royal Society of Chemistry awards the designation of Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry for distinguished service in the field of chemistry.

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References

  1. 1 2 "Prof Richard Morris, CBE, FRS". Debrett's. Archived from the original on 12 November 2012. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  2. Morris, R. G. M. (May 1981). "Spatial localization does not require the presence of local cues". Learning and Motivation . 12 (2): 239–260. doi:10.1016/0023-9690(81)90020-5.
  3. Andersen, P; Morris, R; Amaral, D; Bliss, T; O'Keefe, J, eds. (2007). The Hippocampus Book. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. pp. xx+832. ISBN   978-0-19-510027-3. OCLC   64444087.
  4. Nadel, Lynn (November 2007). "Book review: The hippocampus book, edited by P. Andersen, R. Morris, D. Amaral, T. Bliss, & J. O'Keefe". Hippocampus. 17 (11): 1013–1016. doi:10.1002/hipo.20355.
  5. "People/Administration". Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  6. "People/Academic Staff – Prof. Richard Morris, CBE, FRS". Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  7. "Professor Richard Graham Michael Morris CBE FRS FRSE, FMedSci". The Royal Society of Edinburgh. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  8. "Fellows of the Royal Society". Royal Society. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  9. "Professor Richard Morris, profile: Scientist and Brain Prize winner". The Independent. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  10. "2020 NAS Election". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 28 April 2020.