Neurophysiologist Wolfram Schultz from the University of Cambridge has been awarded the 18th annual Golden Brain Award for his work describing how neurons in the brain process information about physical and psychological rewards.

The Golden Brain Award is presented by the Minerva Foundation and honours researchers who make fundamental contributions to our knowledge of vision and the brain.

Rewards play a central role in survival and behaviour - for example, we eat to satisfy our hunger.

Wolfram Schultz has identified how individual neurons in the brain detect rewards, predict future rewards from past experience and use this information to affect behaviour. He has also identified the parts of the brain where neurons that affect motivation are found.

"This work has deepened our knowledge of the neural mechanism that motivates us to do what we do," said Elwin Marg, executive officer of the Minerva Foundation. "His pioneering research may someday help us understand the mechanism for drug addiction and figure out a way to thwart it."

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