Peter Somogyi | |
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| Born | (1950-02-27)27 February 1950 (age 75) |
| Nationality | Hungarian, British |
| Occupation | Professor of Neurobiology |
| Employer | University of Oxford |
| Known for | Research on neuronal networks in the brain |
| Website | https://pharm.ox.ac.uk/research/somogyi-group |
Peter Somogyi is the former Director of theMedical Research Council Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit at the University Department of Pharmacology,University of Oxford, England.[1]
Somogyi's discoveries relate to understanding ways in which networks ofneurons work in the brain. His first key discovery was to find that each 'chandelier cell' in the cerebralcortex exclusively formssynaptic connections only with the initialaxon segments of potentially hundreds ofpyramidal cells.[2] This is one example of a type ofaxo-axonic synapse. Somogyi followed this up to discover at least 21 types of connecting neurons (interneurons) in just part of the brain (hippocampus), each one of which formed synapses with specific parts of other neurons.[3] Somogyi then studied the electrical activity of neurons and their spatial organisation, which he named the 'chronocircuit' within the cortex of the brain.[4]
Amongst many scientific honours he was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society in 2000,[5] and awarded the first (together with hungarian co-winnersGyorgy Buzsaki andTamás Freund) Grete Lundbeck European Brain Research FoundationBrain Prize in 2011.[6]
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