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“Synaptic wiring specificity and network dynamics in the brain” Brain Prize symposium was held at Sandjberg Conference Centre, Denmark 6-8 May, as part of the Danish Neuroscience Society meeting. Amongst the invited speakers Peter Somogyi spoke on “GABAergic contribution to the chronocircuit of the hippocampus”. The meeting was followed on the 9th of May by the awarding of the 2012 Brain Prizes www.thebrainprize.org in Copenhagen by the Grete Lundbeck European Brain Research Foundation. Nominations for the 2013 Brain Prize are open to any neuroscientist or members of the public.

Cristina Martínez González has successfully defended her D.Phil. thesis entitled: "Topographical organisation of non-cholinergic neurons in the pedunculopontine nucleus" on the 19th of March 2012 (only minor corrections have been requested by the examiners).

Cristina was supervised by Prof. Paul Bolam and Dr. Juan Mena-Segovia. Her internal examiner was Dr. Ned Jenkinson, Research Fellow at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, and her external examiner was Prof. Philip Winn, Head of the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy & Biomedical Sciences at University of Strathclyde.

Peter Somogyi delivered the Brain Prize public lecture, “Co-operation in science and neuronal societies of the brain" on the 13th of March 2012 to an audience of 940 in the Per Kirkeby Auditorium at Aarhus University as part of their public lecture series. The well-known Danish science reporter and writer Ms Lone Frank questioned Peter after each of the two 40 min presentations. In the first part he presented the challenges of explaining and treating neurological diseases and explained the basic rules of neuronal communication, such as synaptic excitation and inhibition. He showed their classical in vitro experiment on the synchronisation of pyramidal cells in the hippocampus by GABAergic basket cells (Cobb et al., 1995). In the second part he introduced O’Keefe’s discovery of place cells and illustrated how cell assemblies represent behaviour predicitive population signals as shown by the brilliant experiments of Buzsaki’s group (Pastalkova et al., Science, 2008. 321. 1322). He then showed how specific GABAergic cell types differentiate their GABA release times and contribute to population network activity during theta and ripple oscillations. At the end he summarised his concern about the threats to tomorrow’s world and his motto of why he continues to seek new knowledge.

Cell-type specific regulation of interneuronal microcircuits in the cortex
Professor Ivan Soltesz, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of California Irvine. http://www.anatomy.uci.edu/soltesz.html delivered the 7th David Smith Lecture on the 6th March 2012, followed by dinner at Brasenose College.

Professor Soltesz's research focuses on how brain cells communicate with each other and how the communication changes after fever-induced seizures in early childhood and after head injury. The general goal is to understand how neuronal networks function and dysfunction, in order to discover new therapies to prevent epilepsy.

Professor Soltesz was first a visiting undergraduate then completed his doctoral research in the Unit from 1989-1990 and was also a postdoctoral scientist.

The Lecture each year celebrates the vision of the previous Chair of Pharmacology and founding Director of the Unit, Prof. A. David Smith, currently Honorary Associate Director and Emeritus Professor, and the successful conclusion of the last quinquennial scientific review of the Unit.

To commemorate the Lecture, Prof. Soltesz received a laser engraved cherry wood plaque, designed by Unit Artist Ben Micklem and illustrating aspects of anatomical neuropharmacology at Oxford from molecules to the brain.