Peter Somogyi

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Peter Somogyi

| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS|FMedSci}}

| image =

Somogyi Peter portrait 150313 cropped.jpg

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| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1950|02|27}}

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| nationality = Hungarian, British

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| occupation = Professor of Neurobiology

| employer = University of Oxford

| known_for = Research on neuronal networks in the brain

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| website = https://pharm.ox.ac.uk/research/somogyi-group

}}

Peter Somogyi is the former Director of the Medical Research Council Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit at the University Department of Pharmacology, University of Oxford, England.{{cite web|title=Somogyi Group |url=https://pharm.ox.ac.uk/research/somogyi-group|website = Department of Pharmacology, University of Oxford |accessdate=28 October 2019}}

Somogyi’s discoveries relate to understanding ways in which networks of neurons work in the brain. His first key discovery was to find that each ‘chandelier cell’ in the cerebral cortex exclusively forms synaptic connections only with the initial axon segments of potentially hundreds of pyramidal cells.{{Cite journal |last=Somogyi |first=P. |date=1977-11-11 |title=A specific 'axo-axonal' interneuron in the visual cortex of the rat |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0006899377908083 |journal=Brain Research |volume=136 |issue=2 |pages=345–350 |doi=10.1016/0006-8993(77)90808-3 |pmid=922488 |issn=0006-8993|url-access=subscription }} This is one example of a type of axo-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.{{Cite journal |last1=Somogyi |first1=Peter |last2=Klausberger |first2=Thomas |date=January 2005 |title=Defined types of cortical interneurone structure space and spike timing in the hippocampus |journal=The Journal of Physiology |language=en |volume=562 |issue=1 |pages=9–26 |doi=10.1113/jphysiol.2004.078915 |issn=0022-3751 |pmc=1665488 |pmid=15539390}} Somogyi then studied the electrical activity of neurons and their spatial organisation, which he named the ‘chronocircuit’ within the cortex of the brain.{{Cite journal |last1=Somogyi |first1=Peter |last2=Katona |first2=Linda |last3=Klausberger |first3=Thomas |last4=Lasztóczi |first4=Bálint |last5=Viney |first5=Tim J. |date=2014-02-05 |title=Temporal redistribution of inhibition over neuronal subcellular domains underlies state-dependent rhythmic change of excitability in the hippocampus |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |language=en |volume=369 |issue=1635 |pages=20120518 |doi=10.1098/rstb.2012.0518 |issn=0962-8436 |pmc=3866441 |pmid=24366131}}

Amongst many scientific honours he was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society in 2000,{{cite web|title= Member Peter Somogyi|url=https://royalsociety.org/people/peter-somogyi-12318/|website=Royal Society|accessdate=26 April 2016}} and awarded the first (together with hungarian co-winners Gyorgy Buzsaki and Tamás Freund) Grete Lundbeck European Brain Research Foundation Brain Prize in 2011.{{cite web|title=Biography Peter Somogyi|url=https://www.lundbeckfonden.com/person/peter-somogyi/|website=The Brain Prize|publisher=European Brain Research Foundation|accessdate=26 April 2016}}