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The Life Scientific: Episode 129: Richard Morris on how we know where we are

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Richard Morris on memory

Episode 129

Episode 129: Richard Morris on how we know where we are

Richard Morris on how we know where we are

BBC Radio 4 - The Life Scientific, Richard Morris on how we know where we are

Neuroscientist Richard Morris explains how brain cells remember.

Jim Al-Khalili talks to leading scientists about their lives and work. Neuroscientist Richard Morris explains how brain cells remember.

How do we know where we are? The question sounds simple enough. But there's much more to it than simply looking around. Our sense of place is embedded in the very structure of our brains, in such a way that we can remember the exact place we used to play as a child, even if the neighbourhood has been transformed and few of the original visual cues remain. The park you played in as a child may now be full of high rise flats but somehow you know where your favourite tree used to be. Richard Morris has devoted his Life Scientific to trying to understand this profound sense of place and in 2016 was awarded the prestigious Brain Prize for his work on brain cells and circuits. Over the years, he's performed thousands of of experiments on rats in water mazes, an experimental tool that he invented in the eighties and that's now used in labs all over the world. And, in one of his latest experiments, he set up a rat restaurant. 

Producer: Anna Buckley.

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Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to leading scientists about their life and work.

Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to leading scientists about their life and work, finding out what inspires them and asking what their discoveries might do for us in the future.

Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to leading scientists about their life and work, finding out what inspires and motivates them and asking what their discoveries might do for us in the future

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Episode 129: Richard Morris on how we know where we are

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