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Nobel Prize Awarded For Revealing Inner Workings Of The Brain. U.S. psychiatrist and neurologist Karl Deisseroth and German scientists Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The trio were honoured for pioneering work in optogenetics, a technique that allows scientists to control the activity of nerve cells using light. The Nobel Committee said their discoveries opened a new era in neuroscience by allowing researchers to switch individual neural circuits on and off. The technique has helped scientists investigate how specific brain circuits influence memories, emotions and behaviours linked to neurological and psychiatric disorders. Hegemann and Nagel discovered the light-sensitive algal protein channelrhodopsin, while Deisseroth developed a way to use it to activate nerve cells in mice. Optogenetics has since helped researchers map brain pathways and study how the nervous system interacts with other parts of the body, including the heart and gut. Scientists are also exploring medical applications, including clinical trials aimed at restoring some vision in people with retinitis pigmentosa. Deisseroth, Hegemann and Nagel will share the Nobel Prize money of 12 million Swedish kronor, worth around £900,000.
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