The society was founded in 1976 with the aim of helping to advance the field of neurochemistry for the public benefit, in particular to facilitate exchange of ideas and interests amongst its members.
In the same year as the foundation of ISN (1967), the Neurochemical Group of the British Biochemical Society was established, many of its meetings with an international and particularly European flavour.
The working party accepted an invitation, through Alan Davison from the Neurochemical Group of the British Biochemical Society, to organise the first meeting to be held in Bath, UK, in September 1976.
The organising committee (Brian Ansell, Tim Hawthorne, George Lunt, and Herman S. Bachelard) were all members of the Neurochemical Group of the British Biochemical Society.
The working party had requested that the meeting should have a clinical theme, so the general area of "Basic Aspects of Neurochemistry Related to the Epilepsies" was chosen.