The 2009 Conference on Inhibition in the CNS will give leaders and young scientists the opportunity to present cutting-edge research in this field and ample discussion time after each presentation will allow for critical and stimulating debates. The topics have been chosen to reflect the breadth in this field ranging from the molecular, cellular to the systems level. Invited speakers are representatives of different disciplines, including anatomy, electrophysiology, imaging, behaviour. Most importantly, the diversity of in vitro and in vivo techniques will illustrate how interdisciplinary approaches can be used and how they complement each other in the study of inhibition in the brain. We will discuss the diversity of GABAergic interneurons including developmental aspects, their functional role within a network in the adult brain in health and disease. Studies of GABAergic interneurons at the network level will range from minimal circuits (communication and connectivity of between two neurons) to microcircuits and large networks in different brain areas and in several model organisms. The presentations of the invited speakers will be complemented by poster sessions and by short presentations delivered by postdocs and students. The latter will be selected from the poster abstracts and the potential speakers will be notified in advance. The site of the conference will be the Colby College in Maine that the consortium attending the last Gordon Conference on Inhibition favored.