Neuroscientist searching for keys to memory

(CNN) -- Working memory is one of the essential components that makes us human. Whether you are performing a complex task such as playing Beethoven on the piano or just looking up a phone number or driving a car, you are drawing on your working memory.

"Almost everything you do probably has a working memory component to it," said Patricia Goldman-Rakic.

The neuroscientist is credited with providing the first blueprint of this critical area of the human mind, nestled in the prefrontal cortex of the brain.

Working memory is something that most people take for granted until they start losing it, due to the gradual aging process or something more acute.

"You might have trouble remembering where you left your keys, what is the name of that person. Those are the issues, the problems that pop up when your working memory system is deficient," Goldman-Rakic said.

Her courage to delve into what scientists say is the most complex part of the brain is providing insight into what drives normal behavior as well as what causes disorders such as schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.

"She took a risk by starting to study something that there wasn't already a really firm foundation she could build on," said Stephen Kosslyn, a psychologist at Harvard University. "Most science is incremental. It's building on what's been done before. Every once in a while someone does something new and opens it up, and that was her."

After she became involved in her research, Goldman-Rakic said it dawned on her that "everyone else was over there and I am over here and I'm pretty lonely."

'My heart began to race'

Her pivotal discovery came in 1977 when she found that the prefrontal cortex was not a mush of neurons as many had assumed but modules of organized cells.

"My heart began to race," Goldman-Rakic said, recalling the moment when she looked through the microscope and realized that she had discovered something big.

"I kind of thought it was cool," she added, smiling.

Since 1977, Goldman-Rakic has worked with laboratory monkeys to understand the function of the cells and neurons stored within the prefontal cortex modules.

She discovered that groups of cells are dedicated to specific memory tasks and that by recording the activity of a particular cell, the action of a monkey could be predicted.

Her Yale University laboratory is studying the role of a critical molecule, dopamine, that influences a number of brain disorders, and it is testing compounds to see if they can reverse cognitive deficits.

Susan Sesack, a neuroscientist at the University of Pittsburgh, is among the admirers of Goldman-Rakic's work.

"This is one of the strongest scientists in my field and perhaps one of the strongest female scientists, period," Sesack said. "She's very fierce; she's very competitive. So my guess is that, personally, she's given up a great deal in order to be such a prominent scientist and to be so dedicated."

Goldman-Rakic, a native of Massachusetts, is one of three sisters who all became scientists. She is married to Pasko Rakic, who is also a distinguished brain researcher at Yale. They have no children.

The couple consider the all-consuming nature of their work more of a privilege than a sacrifice, said Goldman-Rakic. "We always felt we were fortunate really that we could do this," she said.

At 64, Goldman-Rakic is as dedicated as she was when she started out, hopeful that she can continue to make breakthroughs beneficial to science.

"If anything could lead to a therapy, make a difference in the lives of individuals with disease and their families and have a widespread effect, well, that's a holy grail for a neuroscientist," she said.