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An extraordinary report on an extraordinary observation! How do the place cells of the hippocampus work? The Nusser group's discovery was published in the journal eLife and the first author Máté Sümegi reports on it.   

Just a week ago, students from five high schools visited us as part of the MTÜ program, where they attended lectures and visited laboratories. On Wednesday and Thursday (November 19-20), students from Semmelweis University's Talent Development Program will visit us, and we may welcome some of them as TDK students in a few years' time, as their visit here has inspired them to pursue neuroscience.

The study, published in Science Advances and resulting from collaboration between Makara and the Ujfalussy group, revealed how the activity patterns of nerve cells in the hippocampus, the brain's main learning and memory center, change during spatial learning and adaptation to sudden changes in the environment. The results show that the hippocampus plays an important role not only in learning but also in brain processes responsible for cognitive flexibility. Further investigation of these processes may lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying cognitive decline observed in many psychiatric disorders and in aging.

It has been a month since SfN Hungary, or officially known as the Society for Neuroscience Hungary Chapter, held its inaugural conference in Budapest between September 30 and October 1, 2025, at the Semmelweis University's Nagyvárad tér Theoretical Block (NET) building.

Academician Zoltán Nusser, deputy director of our institute, after winning two ERC Advanced Grants (2011, 2017), together with Attila Losonczy (University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center) and Ivo Spiegel (Weizmann Institute), has won this year's Synergy Grant, the most competitive and prestigious grant offered by the ERC.

Schizophrenia is a serious neurological disorder that affects tens of millions of people and requires lifelong medication and psychosocial support. Effective, targeted treatment requires an understanding of the pathological processes involved, which in turn requires mapping the changes occurring in the neural networks of the brain areas affected by the disease at the cellular, synaptic, and molecular levels. The Nusser group has developed a groundbreaking, high-resolution technique that allows the study of synaptic proteins at the level of individual synapses in human brain tissue. Using this method, they discovered a selective molecular change (decreased NMDA receptor density) in a specific subset of excitatory synapses in schizophrenic patients.

Once again, we must say goodbye . . .

We last participated in the Researchers' Night program the year before last, as last year's event clashed with KOKI DAYS. It is true that, as we have experienced on previous occasions, only half of those who registered for the programs actually attended, but those who were there left with a wealth of experiences.  

The Junior Prima Award, established in 2007 by the Hungarian Development Bank and the Prima Primissima Foundation, is awarded to scientists under the age of 33 in the Hungarian science category as one of the highest honors available in their age group.  Two years after Suzanne Prokop's award, we now congratulate Krisztián Zichó on his great and well-deserved success, the Junior Prima Award!

Our three winners are László Biró, Márton Rózsa, and Richárd Sinkó. Their achievements to date are recognized and rewarded with scholarships, for which we offer our heartfelt congratulations.