The 2022 Brain Prize has been awarded to an international group of researchers for their pioneering work on how the nervous system controls movement.
Professors Silvia Arber (FMI Basel, Switzerland), Martyn Goulding (The Salk Institute, USA/New Zealand) and Ole Kiehn (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) were recognised for their work in understanding how neurons in the spinal cord and brain stem control movement and posture.
Arber’s work involved using mice to understand how animals, including humans, control movement of the arms and hands during food handling, while Kiehn and Goulding’s work in rodents has identified which cells are responsible for control of speed and rhythm of movement.
All of this research has helped improve understanding of how movement is lost, in diseases such as Parkinson’s and ALS (motor neurone disease).
Prof. Richard Morris, chair of the selection committee, said the researchers had: “.. revolutionised our understanding of the fundamental cells and circuits underlying mammalian body movement and have defined the importance of these elements in health and disease.”
Awarded annually by the Lundbeck Foundation, the Brain Prize recognises original and highly influential research that has significantly advanced the field of neuroscience.