Maguire was born inDublin, Ireland on 27 March 1970.[9] She studiedpsychology atUniversity College Dublin and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA Hons) degree in 1990.[9] She studied clinical and experimentalneuropsychology atUniversity of Wales, Swansea and graduated with a Master of Science degree in 1991.[5][9] She undertook her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree atUniversity College Dublin,[10][11] Ireland, where she first became interested in the neural basis of memory while working with patients as a neuropsychologist at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin. She completed her PhD in 1994,[10] and herdoctoral thesis was titledReal-world spatial memory following temporal-lobe surgery in humans.[10]
Maguire and others have noted that a distributed set of brain regions supports humanepisodic (autobiographical) memory, defined as the memory for personal everyday events,[13] and that this brain network overlaps considerably with that supporting navigation in large-scale space and other diverse cognitive functions such as imagination and thinking about the future.[14] In her research Maguire sought to place episodic memory in the context of wider cognition so as to understand how common brain areas, and possibly common processes, support such disparate functions. In this way she hoped to gain novel and fundamental insights into the mechanisms that are involved.[12]
Her team used standard whole brain and high resolution structural and functionalmagnetic resonance imaging in conjunction with behavioural testing and neuropsychological examination of amnesic patients to pursue their aims. They mainly employed ecologically valid or 'real life' experimental paradigms to examine brain-behaviour relationships; examples include using virtual reality to examine navigation,[15][16] investigating autobiographical memories of people's personal past experiences, and their ability to imagine fictitious and future scenes and events. Perhaps the most famous of these is her series of studies on London taxi drivers,[17][18][19] where she documented changes inhippocampal structure associated with acquiring the knowledge of London's layout. A redistribution ofgrey matter was indicated inLondon Taxi Drivers compared to controls. This work on hippocampal plasticity not only interested scientists, but also engaged the public and media world-wide.
This is also true of her other work such as that showing that patients withamnesia cannot imagine the future[20] which several years ago[when?] was rated as one of the scientific breakthroughs of the year;[21] and her other studies demonstrating that it is possible to decode people's memories from the pattern of fMRI activity in the hippocampus.[22][23]
Besides her direct scientific activities, Maguire and her research group had an active public engagement agenda, involving public lectures, school visits and demonstrations, TV, radio and internet contributions, and collaborations with several artists, encouraging people of all ages to think about the value of science in their everyday lives. In February 2014, Maguire delivered a Friday Evening Discourse at TheRoyal Institution.[27]
Maguire was diagnosed withspinal cancer in 2022.[28] She died from complications of cancer and pneumonia at a hospice in London on 4 January 2025, at the age of 54.[28][29][30]
Maguire won a number of prizes for outstanding contributions to science, including:
2003, theIg Nobel Prize for Medicine, awarded for 'presenting evidence that the brains of London taxi drivers are more highly developed than those of their fellow citizens'[31]
^abcMaguire, Eleanor A. (1994).Real-world spatial memory following temporal-lobe surgery in humans (PhD thesis). University College Dublin.OCLC605310948.ProQuest301509150.
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