The Club continued its activities with the December meeting on James Parkison, the third meeting at ICM (Institut du cerveau et de la moelle épinière). Moreover, a history session was organized at the French Société des Neurosciences meeting in Bordeaux, NeuroFrance 2017. The two present research programs deal with neuronal degeneration and Louis Lapicque.
We deeply deplore the loss of our friends Members of the Club of these recent years, Jacques Taxi (1922-2017), Pierre Buser (1921-2013), Yves Galifret (1920-2013), Yves Laporte (1920-2012), Marc Jeannerod (1935-2011), Arlette Rougeul-Buser (1924- 2010) and Jacques Paillard (1920- 2006).
Jacques
Taxi prepares the SPCN in 1940 at the faculté des
sciences in Paris, later to become UPMC in 1968, where he
stayed throughout his entire career. He was away only in 1943
and 1944 to escape STO and enter French Resistance. After his
agrégation in Natural History, he became assistant to René
Couteaux and prepared a doctorate on the innervation of
intestinal smooth muscle cells. Jacques Taxi acquired a
lasting recognition in the field of the autonomic nervous
system. He used dyes, histochemical techniques and electron
microscopy, a technique he was still using when he was 93
years old, with as much pleasure and efficiency to
demonstrate the different structural elements involved in
neurotransmitter release and actions, in particular the
“Corps de Taxi”, a post-synaptic structure with still no
defined role.
Pierre Buser founded the Institut des neurosciences in
Paris. He was educated at the Lycée Kléber, and the École
normale supérieure in Paris, where he was received in
physics. After the agrégation de biologie, he was awarded a
Ph.D. in biology (1953), and became assistant professor and
then full professor of physiology at the Faculté des sciences
de Paris in 1961. He opened his own laboratory the same year
in the building called Barre Cassan, where he remained during
his active retirement. Pierre Buser started his career as an
electrophysiologist in the 1940s at the Institut Marey, then
headed by Alfred Fessard. His work dealt with secondary areas
and visuomotor integration and their cortical projections. He
pioneered a model protocol to record motor activities in the
spinal cord of animals without movement, which he called
marche fictive (“fictive locomotion”).
Yves
Laporte had been elected to the French Académie des
Sciences on June 17th 1985 in the section of human biology
and medical sciences. His main researches dealt with the
functional organisation of spinal cord, the innervation and
properties of the different types of motor units of the
striated muscle and sensori-motor innervation of complex
sensory organs of the muscle, muscle spindles. He was
honorary professor of the Collège de France and was in charge
of its administration for 12 years from 1980 to 1991. He was
Commandeur de la Légion d'Honneur, Grand'Croix de l'Ordre
National du Mérite and Commandeur des Palmes Académiques.
Marc Jeannerod
(1935-2011) was Emeritus Professor at the Claude Bernard
University in Lyons. M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Physiology in
Lyons, he was head of a research unit on vision and motricity
of the National institute of health and medical research
(Inserm) until 1997, then at the Cognitive science institute
UMR 5015 of CNRS until 2003.
Arlette
Rougeul-Buser, Retired Research Director at CNRS, was a
member of the UMR7102, laboratory of the neurobiology of
adaptative processes headed by Jean Mariani and Danièle
Tritsch.
Jacques
Paillard founded a pluridisciplinary CNRS research
center of psychophysics, a discipline he promoted at the
university. He initated research activities on sports and
motor activities, and he was a founder and organiser of the
Brain and Behaviour Society at a European level.
Yves
Galifret was one of the last figures of the close circle
of students of the French school of Experimental psychology
of Henri Piéron (1881-1964), Professor at the Collège de
France. The scientific work of Yves Galifret follows the
initial project of Piéron, described in 1910 as an
experimental psychology, escaping the strict frame of
Fechner’s law, focussed on the analysis of the senses by
neurophysiological interpretations based on nervous and
neuronal activities. The studies of Yves Galifret primarily
focussed on the psychophysiological analyses of vision,
escaping the absolute description of Fechner’law, and close
to Harvard psychologist Stanley Smith Stevens (1906-1973),
whose theory gave alternative ways of analyses. He trained in
electrophysiology in the school of Alfred Fessard at the
Marey Institute, a renowned CNRS centre, where he worked with
Pierre Buser on the neuronal mechanisms of vision. At the end
of the 1950s, he developed a way to implant fine tungsten
electrodes in the brain of pigeon to study the binocular
vision of colours. Yves Galifret always devoted equal energy
to his teaching and to his role as an engaged scientist at
the Union Rationaliste, where he was General secretary, and
directed scientific activities and publications for more than
50 years. Yves Galifret also wrote articles of history of
science, epistemology and philosophy of science.
Present Activities (2014-2016)
The Club
was part of several projects including a long lasting
project on (1) French-Russian relationships in Biology (and
more specifically Neuroscience), (2) the history of the
neurosciences as part of a European conference project with
FENS organised at ICM (December 3-4 2015), (3) the history
of degenerative diseases with the interdisciplinary ANR
project on deep brain stimulation (Sonia Canselier), and (4)
a project on Louis Lapicque with the P.I. Nixon Medical
Historical Library and the UT Health Science Center Digital
Archive Purpose of the University of Texas Health Science
Center San Antonio, 7703 Floyd Curl Drive San Antonio,
TX 78229.
Election
Claude Debru was elected at the French Academy of sciences
on March 11, 2011.
Meeting of the Club d'histoire des neurosciences on
the history of degeneration for the ANR “Normastim”, Thursday
March 26th 2015, 12 am - 3 pm, laboratoire Neurosciences
Paris Seine, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Building B,
Room 501. Laura Bossi: neurodegeneraive models and
therapeutical approaches; Jean-Gaël Barbara: Debates on
neurodegeneration between physiology, experimental pathology,
clinical studies and the anatomopathology of nervous diseases
in the 19th c.
Presentation by the Club d'histoire des neurosciences
to the interdisciplinary meeting of ANR NormaStim on Deep
brain stimulation. Monday 12 January, Université Paris
Descartes. J.-G. Barbara, C. Cherici and J.-C. Dupont, From
past explorations of the nervous system to neurodegenerative
diseases.
2014 events
No meeting in 2014 following the decease of Pierre Buser
and Yves Galifret
2013 events
Jacques Taxi gave a lecture on “The Contribution of
Electron Microscopy to Neuroscience”, Thursday July 4th,
12:30, Room B501, laboratoire de neurobiologie des processus
adaptatifs, building B, UPMC.
2012 events
Third French-Russian GDRI CNRS meeting on the history of
the neurosciences : Russian-French-German Links in
Embryology, Physiology and Medicine, 14 juin 2012.
Meeting organised by Prof. Eduard Kolchinsky – Chair of the
St. Petersburg branch Institute for the history of science
and technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences – and
member of the Groupe de Recherche Internationale Franco-Russe
du CNRS (GDRI) directed by Jean-Gaël Barbara (CNRS, CHN) and
Alexander Frolov (Institute of the Higher Nervous Activity,
Moscow).
Session 25, The next science of humankind. Myths and
histories of the Neurosciences, coordinated & chaired by
Jean-Gaël Barbara and Fabio de Sio at the 5th Conference of
the European Society for the History of Science, Athens,
November 1-3 2012, National Hellenic Research Foundation,
Marasleios Academy, Byzantine and Christian Museum.
2011 events
Second Meeting of the French-Russian GDRI CNRS on the
history of the neurosciences : Russian-French Links in
Biology and Medicine Saint-Pétersbourg, 13-14 septembre 2011.
Meeting organised by Prof. Eduard Kolchinsky – Chair of the
St. Petersburg branch Institute for the history of science
and technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences – and
member of the Groupe de Recherche Internationale Franco-Russe
du CNRS (GDRI) directed by Jean-Gaël Barbara (CNRS, CHN) and
Alexander Frolov (Institute of the Higher Nervous Activity,
Moscow).
2010 events
- No meeting took place in 2010 due to many international
events organised by the Club that year.
Fifth Meeting of the Club for the History of the
Neurosciences
Friday 13 November, 2009 (11 :00 am – 5 :00 pm),
Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris 6 Laboratoire
de Neurobiologie des Processus Adaptatifs UMR CNRS
7102, 7, quai Saint Bernard
The meeting was organised by Jean-Gaël Barbara, André
Calas and François Clarac. Speakers were invited to
present neuroscientists from Bordeaux (France) : Jacques
Battin (Bordeaux, Member of the national Academy of
medicine) : “Neuropsychiatry in Bordeaux: elder masters
until today” ; Jan Pieter Konsman (Bordeaux) : “François
Magendie” ; André Calas (Bordeaux, Emeritus CNRS Research
Director CNRS) : “Pioneers in Neuroendocrinology in
Bordeaux” ; François Clarac (Marseilles, Emeritus CNRS
Research Director CNRS) : “From P. Delmas Marsalet to
neuronal networks” ; Jean-Gaël Barbara (Paris, CNRS) :
“The laboratory of Arcachon, Alfred Fessard, studies on
torpedo fish and aplysia ».
Fourth Meeting of the Club for the History of the
Neurosciences
Thursday June 4th, 2009 (2:00 pm – 4:00 pm) Université
Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris 6 Laboratoire de
Neurobiologie des Processus Adaptatifs UMR CNRS 7102, 7,
quai Saint Bernard
Thibaud Trochu (EXeCO Team, Experience and Cognition, Paris
1 university) presented his original work on William James
(1842-1910) concerning the philosophical position of James on
the mind-brain problem. He discussed the medical and
scientific background of James upon which his philosophy was
built.
Third Meeting of the Club for the History of the
Neurosciences
Wednesday May 7th, 2008 (2:00 pm – 5:00 pm) Université
Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris 6 Laboratoire de
Neurobiologie des Processus Adaptatifs UMR CNRS 7102,
7, quai Saint Bernard
Second Meeting of the Club for the History of the
Neurosciences
Thursday October 11th, 2007 Université Pierre et Marie
Curie, Paris 6 Laboratoire de Neurobiologie des Processus
Adaptatifs UMR CNRS 7102, 7, quai Saint Bernard Bâtiment
B, 5ème étage, Salle 501.
First Meeting of the Club for the History of the
Neurosciences
Thursday June 15th,
2006 (9 :30 am – 4 :00 pm) Université Pierre et Marie
Curie, Paris 6 Laboratoire de Neurobiologie des
Processus Adaptatifs UMR CNRS 7102, 7, quai Saint
Bernard Bâtiment B, 5ème étage, Salle 501.
The Club for the History of
the Neurosciences is one of the official clubs of the
Neuroscience Society (France). Members have informal
meetings on special themes. Other clubs include those on
attention, blood-brain barrier, glial cells, prefrontal
cortex, neuronal networks, epilepsy, exocytosis and
endocytosis, basic ganglia, locomotion and rhythmic motor
activities, motoneurones, neurobiology of invertebrates,
neuroprotection, cognitive psychophysiology and the
autonomous system.
The list of members include
Jean-Gaël Barbara, Alain Berthoz, Pierre Buser, Alexandre
Bouron, André Calas, Céline Cherici, Guy Chouvet, François
Clarac, Rafael De Armas Pereira, Claude Debru, Jean-Claude
Dupont , Liliana Garcia, Fabrice Gzil, Philippe Isope,
Maurice Israël, Marc Jeannerod, François Jourdan, Isabelle
Le Brun, Jean-Claude Lecas, Jean Mariani, Jacques Paillard,
Olivier Pierrefiche , Bernard Poulain, Monique Rogard, David
Romand, Laure Rondi, David Sander, Andrée Tixier, Danièle
Tritsch, Patrice Venault, François Jourdan.
Program
09:30
Opening of the meeting
1st session
10:00-10:20
André Calas
Every neuron has a shape :
neurones in the history of the neurosciences
10:20-10:40
François Clarac
Commentary on the article of
Alfred Fessard (1931) on Nervous rhythms and relaxation
oscillations.
Break
11:00-11:20
Suzanne Tyc-Dumont
The unknown territories of
dendritic arborisation and why should we make models ?
11:20-11:40
Andrée Tixier-Vidal
The history of the pituitary
gland : form and function
11:40-12:00
Maurice Israël
The history of an Egyptian
medical prescription
Lunch
2nd session
14:00-14:20
Céline Cherici
Antoine Rémond (1917-1998)
and EEG in Paris
14:20-14:40
Fabrice Gzil
The invention of
Alzheimer's disease
14:40-15:00
Jean-claude Lecas
The behaviourist origins of
neuroscience
Break
15:15
General Assembly of the
Club, discussion on future activities
