Three scientists are being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their collective work towards discovering the brain’s “GPS system.”

John O’Keefe, of London and May-Britt Moser and Evard Moser of Norway are set to split the reward, which equals nearly $1.1 million in all. O’Keefe gets half and the Mosers, a husband and wife research team, will be awarded the second half.

They will receive this distinguished honor because of their work identifying cells in the brain responsible for mapping out environments, thereby making it possible to move around.

O’Keefe started the discovery in 1971, when he located the first type of cell responsible for this function. In lab tests, he found that certain cells in the hippocampus were active based on where a rat was positioned in a room. As long as the rat stayed in that place, the corresponding nerve stayed active. When the rat moved, the active cell changed. He called these “place cells” and noted that their function was to create a map of the rat’s environment.

In 2005, the Mosers discovered another level of these cells. They called them “grid cells” and their function was to “generate a coordinate system and allow for precise positioning and pathfinding.”

Basically, the interaction between the place and grid cells allowed rats to determine their position in a room and navigate to another one.

This discovery provides a lot more insight into concepts that have had scientists and philosophers scratching their heads for centuries. It is said to have the potential to revolutionize how specialized cells in the brain are regarded as far as their abilities to interact and perform complex operations.