biology

Sten Grillner

Sten Grillner is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sten Grillner rather than just read about it. In short: Sten Grillner (born 14 June 1941, Stockholm) is a Swedish neurophysiologist and Director of the Karolinska Institute's Nobel Institute for Neurophysiology in Stockholm. He is considered one of the world's foremost experts in the cellular bases of motor behaviour.

Key takeaways

Sten Grillner belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sten Grillner to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sten Grillner from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sten Grillner (born 14 June 1941, Stockholm) is a Swedish neurophysiologist and Director of the Karolinska Institute's Nobel Institute for Neurophysiology in Stockholm. He is considered one of the world's foremost experts in the cellular bases of motor behaviour. His research is focused on understanding the cellular bases of motor behaviour; in particular, he has shown how neuronal circuits in the spine help control rhythmic movements, such as those needed for locomotion. He served as President of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) between 2010 and 2012, and Secretary General of the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) between 2012 and 2015. Neuroscientist Eric Kandel has named Grillner's work on the workings of complex neurocircuitry extremely important and that this progress in understanding motor systems, the cognitive role in motor systems, is a brilliant advance and that it has revolutionized our understanding of how the nervous system is wired. Grillner studied at the medical faculty in Gothenburg, Sweden, and received his Doctor of Medicine (MD); PhD in neurophysiology in 1969. He has been a Professor and Director of the Nobel Institute for Neurophysiology at the Karolinska Institute since 1987. He is a member of the Academia Europaea, Royal Swedish Academy of Science, National Academy of Sciences (US), Institute of Medicine (US) and former member, deputy chair and chairperson between 1988 and 2008 of the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet which awards Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He has received a number of awards including the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award in 1993 and the Reeve–Irvine award in 2002. He was the co-recipient of the 2005 SfN Ralph Gerard Prize, the highest recognition conferred by Society for Neuroscience, and a co-recipient of the inaugural Kavli Prize for Neuroscience in 2008, alongside Thomas Jessell and Pasko Rakic.

Research His research has focused on the extraordinary capability of the brain to control movement. Early on he demonstrated that networks within the mammalian spinal cord can produce the detailed motor pattern of locomotion involving the coordination of hundreds of different muscles. In a paper published in 1987, he and James Buchanan provided a putative network scheme of interacting interneurons in the lamprey spinal cord, a model vertebrate system. The level of detail gained in this work is unique in that it has allowed changes in behaviour to be related to changes occurring at the cellular and network level. His later work is directed towards understanding the forebrain mechanisms underlying selection of behavior, and has shown that the organization of the basal ganglia, dopamine system, habenulae and pallium is evolutionarily conserved in considerable detail over more than 500 million years. He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

References

External links Sten Grillner's homepage

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sten Grillner

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sten Grillner claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sten Grillner before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sten Grillner ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sten Grillner

In research: Sten Grillner appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sten Grillner in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sten Grillner is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1941 births, Academic staff of the Karolinska Institute, International members of the National Academy of Sciences, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sten Grillner outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sten Grillner in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sten Grillner means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sten Grillner out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sten Grillner in simple terms?

Why does Sten Grillner matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sten Grillner?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sten Grillner.