May-Britt Moser is a Norwegian psychologist and neuroscientist best known for her work on how the mammalian brain represents space. Trained initially in psychology, she moved into systems neuroscience and, together with collaborators, identified cell types and circuits that enable animals to navigate and form spatial memories.
Key discoveries and concepts
- Grid cells: Neurons in the medial entorhinal cortex that fire in a regular, triangular grid pattern across an environment, providing a metric for spatial location.
- Complementary spatial cells: Research from Moser's laboratory also characterized head-direction cells, border cells, and interactions with hippocampal place cells, which together support orientation and memory.
These findings helped explain how position and movement are encoded by ensembles of neurons, transforming abstract ideas about navigation into testable physiological mechanisms.
Moser has held leadership roles at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), where she co-directs research at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience. Her laboratory uses electrophysiology, behavioral experiments and computational approaches to link single-cell activity to behavior.
Importance: the discoveries have deepened understanding of spatial cognition and memory, informed models of neural computation and influenced research into neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, where navigation and memory are affected.
Recognition: In 2014 she shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with John O'Keefe and Edvard I. Moser for discoveries of specialized brain cells that constitute a positioning system. The work remains a foundation for current studies of representation, learning and network dynamics in the brain.