The prize is in honour of the first President of the EEG Society (1943-1951), Professor ED Adrian OM, FRS (later Lord Adrian) and is for the best abstract by a young researcher given at the previous year’s BSCN scientific meetings. Lord Edgar Adrian (1889-1977) was Professor of Physiology at Cambridge University 1937-51. He confirmed Berger’s early observations on alpha rhythm in the EEG and was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1932, shared with Sir Charles Sherrington, for his work on nerve impulses.
Nicole, who is a post-doc in the EIT Research Group, was awarded the prize on Wednesday 10th September 2025, for her presentation “Demonstration that fascicles in the cervical vagus nerve in pigs and humans are organotypically organised using fast neural Electrical Impedance Tomography (fnEIT) and selective electrical stimulation”, given in October 2024 at the British Society of Clinical Neurophysiology (BSCN) meeting at King’s College Hospital London.
This details groundbreaking work in which she has shown, for the first time, that internal bundles in the vagus nerve in the neck (fascicles) are organised according to the function they supply to individual organs, at least for the heart, lungs and larynx. This has been discovered using imaging of actional potentials with fast neural Electrical Impedance Tomography (fnEIT), and selective electrical stimulation. Nicole’s innovative contribution has been to validate these findings objectively using micro X-ray CT of stained excised nerves from sheep and pigs. First ever studies are currently in progress in human subjects at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, UCL, Queen Square. This work could provide a means to improve treatment of many diseases with electrical vagal nerve stimulation. Identification of specific fascicles could enhance treatment as unwanted off-target effects could be avoided by targeted selective stimulation of identified organ fascicles.
Nicole’s work. Nerves contain internal nerve bundles (fascicles), which can be seen in histological sections (left). Their anatomical connections were unknown until recent studies in the EIT group. Fast neural EIT images of fascicle activity (far right) collected with custom made silicone electrodes placed around the vagus nerve in the neck, showed fascicles dedicated to single organ function. These correlated with tracing of fascicles to their end organ using microCT.
Image: Nicole receiving the prize from Dr Gareth Payne, President, BSCN and Dr Ronit Pressler, Consultant Clinical Neurophysiologist, UCL, President-elect.
