TY - JOUR T1 - Roger Nicoll Tackles Learning/Disabilities JF - eneuro JO - eneuro DO - 10.1523/ENEURO.0071-14.2014 VL - 1 IS - 1 SP - ENEURO.0071-14.2014 AU - Teresa Esch Y1 - 2014/11/01 UR - http://www.eneuro.org/content/1/1/ENEURO.0071-14.2014.abstract N2 - Roger Nicoll was doubly honored by the Society for Neuroscience this year. He was awarded the Ralph W. Gerard Prize in Neuroscience in recognition of his many contributions to our understanding of neuromodulation and long-term potentiation, and he was selected to give the Albert and Ellen Grass Lecture at the Society’s annual meeting. This commentary provides an overview of Nicoll’s work and his remarkable personal history, which he recounted in his talk.This year, the Society for Neuroscience awarded its highest honor, the Ralph W. Gerard Prize in Neuroscience, to Roger Nicoll and Richard Tsien. This prize is awarded to scientists who have made outstanding contributions to neuroscience throughout their careers. Roger Nicoll received the additional honor of being invited to discuss his work in the Albert and Ellen Grass Lecture. He used the opportunity not only to discuss his most recent work, but also to express his deep gratitude for the recognition, through a moving personal account of the “improbable journey” he took “to end up on this stage and to be on this list of really distinguished people.”Nicoll began his neuroscientific career at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Anacostia, working first with Gian Salmoiraghi and later with Floyd Bloom, who were using five-barrel electrodes to identify neurotransmitters used by different neurons. There, Nicoll obtained some of the first evidence that GABA is a neurotransmitter in the vertebrate CNS and that sedative hypnotics and general anesthetics greatly prolong GABA transmission. These findings were published as three single-author papers (Nicoll, 1969, 1970a, 1970b). This work opened the door to several productive years spent investigating … ER -