Ferrier Lecture

The Ferrier Lecture is a Royal Society lectureship given every three years "on a subject related to the advancement of natural knowledge on the structure and function of the nervous system". It was created in 1928 to honour the memory of Sir David Ferrier, a neurologist who was the first British scientist to electronically stimulate the brain for the purpose of scientific study.

In its 90-year history, the Lecture has been given 30 times. It has never been given more than once by the same person. The first female to be awarded the honour was Prof. Christine Holt in 2017. The first lecture was given in 1929 by Charles Scott Sherrington, and was titled "Some functional problems attaching to convergence". The most recent lecturer was provided by Prof. Christine Holt, who presented a lecture in 2017 titled "understanding of the key molecular mechanisms involved in nerve growth, guidance and targeting which has revolutionised our knowledge of growing axon tips". In 1971, the lecture was given by two individuals (David Hunter Hubel and Torsten Nils Wiesel) on the same topic, with the title "The function and architecture of the visual cortex".

List of Lecturers

Year	Name	Lecture title	Notes
1929	Template:Sortname	"Some functional problems attaching to convergence"
1932	Template:Sortname	"Some correlations between skull and brain"
1935	Template:Sortname	"Problems connected with the principle of humeral transmission of nervous impulses"	–
1938	Template:Sortname	"Some problems of localization in the central nervous system"
1941	Template:Sortname	"Fatigue following highly skilled work"
1944	Template:Sortname	"The organization of the visual cortex in man"
1947	Template:Sortname	"Some observations of the cerebral cortex of Man"
1950	Template:Sortname	"Growth and plasticity in the nervous system"	–
1953	Template:Sortname	"The contribution of clinical observation to cerebral physiology"
1956	Template:Sortname	"Inquiries into the anatomical basis of olfactory discrimination"
1959	Template:Sortname	"The nature of central inhibitory action"
1962	Template:Sortname	"Visual adaptation"
1965	Template:Sortname	"Physiological properties of vertebrate and invertebrate neurological cells and the movement of substances through the nervous system"
1968	Template:Sortname	"Studies of a primates brain and hand"
1971	Template:Sortname and Torsten Nils Wiesel	"The function and architecture of the visual cortex"
1974	Template:Sortname	"Body temperature and fever, changes in our views during the last decade"
1977	Template:Sortname	"The neuron network of the cerebral cortex, a functional interpretation"
1980	Template:Sortname	"Cerebral cortex and the design of the eye"	–
1983	Template:Sortname	"Amino acids and peptides: fast and slow chemical signals in the nervous system"	–
1986	Template:Sortname	"The actions of parasympathetic and sympathetic nerves in human micturition, erection and seminal emission, and their restoration in paraplegic patients by implanted electrical stimulators"	–
1989	Template:Sortname	"Side glances at blindsight, recent approaches to implicit discrimination in human cortical blindness"
1992	Template:Sortname	"Seeing depth with two eyes, stereopsis"
1995	Template:Sortname	"Behind the scene: an exploration of the visual brain"
1998	Template:Sortname	"The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor and synaptic plasticity"
2001	Template:Sortname	"Patterning the embryonic brain"	–
2004	Template:Sortname	"Magnetic brain stimulation: what can it tell us about brain function?"
2007	Template:Sortname	"Brain development and brain repair: Molecules and mechanisms that control neuronal wiring"	–
2010	Template:Sortname	"Plasticity of the brain: the key to human development, cognition and evolution"
2013	Template:Sortname	"cognitive neuroscience, especially on the role of the hippocampus, and the mechanisms supporting memory and cognition"
2017	Template:Sortname	"understanding of the key molecular mechanisms involved in nerve growth, guidance and targeting which has revolutionised our knowledge of growing axon tips"
2019	Template:Sortname	"for his work charting the brain activity related to fundamental aspects of human conduct and behaviour"
2021	Template:Sortname	"for groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of how the brain controls movement. Using theoretical and experimental approaches he has elucidated the computational principles underlying skilled motor behaviour."
2023	Template:Sortname	"for greatly advancing the understanding of the physiological and psychological processes underlying memory."
2025	Template:Sortname	"for her work in understanding the molecular basis of Huntington’s disease and consistently producing highly impactful findings which have moulded the course of this field."

References

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