By AMY ADAMS

When you look at these words what do you see? It may look like a series of letters, but what your brain really “sees” is nothing more than the chattering of 3 million neurons relaying signals from the eye to the brain. Specialized cells within the brain interpret this chatter, creating your private image of the world.

How brain cells perform that feat has been the focus of research by William
Newsome, PhD, professor of neurobiology, who won the 2003 Dan David prize for “developing a new level of understanding of how the visual system works,” according to the award announcement.

Newsome shared the “Future” portion of the prize with neuroscientists Robert Wurtz at the National Institutes of Health and Amiram Grinvald at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. Additional awards were given in “Past” and “Present” categories.

Newsome, who is also an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, received the award for research in primates on a group of cells residing an inch above and behind the ear that detects objects as they move across the field of vision. These cells may notice a fly buzzing from left to right or a bird taking off in flight.

Newsome showed that individual nerves from that region send signals at the same time that a monkey detects movement. When he and members of his lab temporarily silenced those neurons, the animals were less able to notice dots moving across a screen.

In another group of experiments, Newsome and his lab group showed that when the monkeys failed to detect subtle movement, those same neurons also failed to fire a signal.

“The cool thing was that there was a very precise match,” Newsome said. He added this was the first time scientists understood the direct link between a single neuron firing and being able to perceive movement.

In a 1990 Nature paper, Newsome and his group reported their most remarkable discovery – they showed that by artificially stimulating these neurons a monkey would detect movement that wasn’t there.

“The idea that you could relate a complex perception to a mere handful of neurons was astounding,” Newsome said.

Newsome is now using similar techniques to understand how the brain makes decisions based on input from many different neurons.

The three scientists share the $1 million prize, of which 10 percent funds a scholarship program. Newsome said his prize will help support his children’s education and a donation to promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians.