commentary on Nobel Prize in Physiology | I Walk, Therefore I Remember

‘A’ Figure, from Ramon Llull's memory wheel “Ars Brevis” (1617)

We learned yesterday that 2014 Nobel Prize in  Physiology or Medicine  (8 million Swedish kronor equivalent to $1.1 million) has been awarded to three neuroscientists "for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain". John O'Keefe, who receives one half of the prize, is a professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London; he discovered in 1971  the first component of a spatial positioning system. Quoting from http://www.nobelprize.org: "He found that a type of nerve cell in an area of the brain called the hippocampus that was always activated when a rat was at a certain place in a room. Other nerve cells were activated when the rat was at other places. O'Keefe concluded that these 'place cells' formed a map of the room." The other half of the prize will be shared by the married couple May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser, of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. In 2005 the couple "discovered another key component of the brain's positioning system. They identified another type of nerve cell, which they called 'grid cells', that generate a coordinate system and allow for precise positioning and pathfinding. Their subsequent research showed how place and grid cells make it possible to determine position and to navigate."
Hugo Spiers, director of the spatial cognition group at University College London, gives a summary of the relevance of these discoveries “Grid cells and place cells offer one of the few bridges neuroscientists have linking the cellular level to the cognitive level, as they help explain how individual brain cells help us navigate, remember the past and imagine the future.”

The Memory Theatre of Giulio Camillo from "The Art of Memory" (France Yates, 1966)

J. Publicius. Oratoriae artis epitome (1482)

The media announced this identification of the neural cells responsible for our spatial orientation as the discovery of an  "internal GPS". I was quite intrigued by learning how scientific discoveries are proving concepts which have present in humanistic approaches to knowledge for thousand years. Frances Yates in "The Art of Memory" (1966) recounts how the mental process of remembering has been augmented by several techniques for thousand years, back to the ancient Greek and Rome. This tradition/body of knowledge developed further in the Middle Ages and Renaissance with memory theatres and "memory wheels". Related iconography includes diagrams from treatises by Giulio Camillo, Giordano Bruno and Ramon Llull —only to mention a few names from a longstanding tradition. In all this examples, brought to attention by Yates scholarly work, there is a clear connection between space, representation and the process of memory. Spatial orientation — defined by the media defines as internal GPS— relates to cognitive process and memory, and finally scientific evidence proofs with neuroimaging. Is this another example of how intuition and art methods are essential to progress knowledge, even before scientific evidence proofs it? Or perhaps artists and scientists —although I have a hard time separating the terms— should collaborate? Paraphrasing once more Mahatma Gandhi's  "Truth is one, paths are many",  a quote used in so many different context, I would add, even if it does not sound catchy:

Knowledge is one, methodologies are many

As a research artist I have been involved for years with movement, space and memory; one of my latest work "My Geospatial Self" the awareness of where we are in space and time, mapping places to thoughts of emotion. I constantly use my phone GPS as tool to record my presence in space and time in the ephemeral footprints of the encounter between myself and the surface of planet earth. I relentlessly take photos of trying to find beauty or whatever aesthetic commentary in everyday life encounters of places and people, in the social or natural environment. I am sure that something happens to the neurons and synaptic connections of my brain, even if I cannot document it. My walks creates memories and promote healing from emotional pain and stress. And I am satisfied with it, even if will not bring a Nobel prize.

My "mind walk" wearing a EEG headset, on October 3, 2014, Hudson Waterfront, New York

Events NYC | Neuroscience: Eric Kandel on Memory at CUNY

Erkenne Dich selbst (know yourself)

This evening my walkabouts took me across the street from the Empire State Building: the Graduate Center of CUNY presented Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel, as launching event of the new Interdisciplinary Committee for Science Studies. Eric R. Kandel, M.D., professor at Columbia University and director of the Kavli Institute for Brain Science, received the Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine in 2000.

In his presentation dr. Kandel focused on memory and introduced the history of research on memory as a system problem and as molecular problem. He started with phrenology (from the Greek φρήν "mind" and λόγος "knowledge"): the popular XIX century discipline (now considered pseudoscience) was developed by the German physician Franz Joseph Gall and assigned cognitive functions and emotions to areas of the brain. The history of how cognitive functions became assigned to specific brain region was quite fascinating and quite amusing to learn how intelligence and emotional responses were determined as function of measurement of the skull.

Dr. Kandel's presentation progressed into contemporary neuroscience and introduced memory related topics such as the relationship between short term, long term, implicit and explicit memory, spatial learning in the hippocampus, influence of aging and how memory is effected by emotions. He also mentioned his upcoming book on art and neuroscience, with references to the German expressionism as well as Gestalt and visual illusions. The content was delivered with great clarity to be fully understood and appreciated even by an audience without specific more technical knowledge in the field of neuroscience.

In the QA session the audience introduced major themes such as neuroscience and ethics: can evil have a biological explanation?

Unfortunately the QA session ended before I was able to ask a question on mnemonic systems from the ancient Greece, Rome and the Renaissance ---as narrated in The Art of Memory by Frances A. Yates. As an artist interested in neuroscience and concerned with the transformation of space, the association between space and memory is quite relevant to my work.

To be continued...

PS The Empire State Building has nothing to do with dr. Kandel's presentation, I only took the photo on my way to CUNY, as I am always fascinated by the interaction of light with landmark building ---and I am not the only one, remember Andy Warhol? As the topic of the lecture was memory and this blog (as many others) is a collection of visual memories...why not including it?