Angélique Arvanitaki (; 11 July 1901 – 6 October 1983) was a French neurophysiologist who did research on the electrical activity of

neuron A neuron (American English), neurone (British English), or nerve cell, is an membrane potential#Cell excitability, excitable cell (biology), cell that fires electric signals called action potentials across a neural network (biology), neural net ...

s using the large nerve fibres of several different

mollusc Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...

Life

Angélique Arvanitaki was of Greek origin and was born in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

on 11 July 1901. In 1942, she married Nick Chalazonitis, who was a student in veterinary medicine at the time, and would himself become a neurophysiologist too. Their daughter Alcmene Chalazonitis, born in 1943, later also became a neuroscientist.

Research

Arvanitaki contributed to the field of neurophysiology with research that explored the giant nerve fibres in genera of

gastropod Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...

s, the

sea hare The order Aplysiida, commonly known as sea hares ('' Aplysia'' species and related genera), are medium-sized to very large opisthobranch gastropod molluscs with a soft internal shell made of protein. These are marine gastropod molluscs in t ...

Aplysia ''Aplysia'' () is a genus of medium-sized to extremely large sea slugs, specifically sea hares, which are a kind of marine gastropod mollusk. These benthic herbivorous creatures can become rather large compared with most other mollusks. They ...

'' and the land snail ''Helix''. She developed the concept of ganglion preparation of large identifiable nerves. Arvanitaki also discovered that regular electrical oscillations could periodically grow in size until a series of

action potential An action potential (also known as a nerve impulse or "spike" when in a neuron) is a series of quick changes in voltage across a cell membrane. An action potential occurs when the membrane potential of a specific Cell (biology), cell rapidly ri ...

s were fired along isolated nerve fibres of the

cuttlefish Cuttlefish, or cuttles, are Marine (ocean), marine Mollusca, molluscs of the order (biology), suborder Sepiina. They belong to the class (biology), class Cephalopoda which also includes squid, octopuses, and nautiluses. Cuttlefish have a unique ...

, genus '' Sepia''. A further contribution of Arvanitaki was the demonstration that a neuronal circuit was not required for a single nerve to produce rhythmic and spontaneous activity. Also, she discovered that when two nerve fibres are close in proximity, the activity of a single nerve fibre can generate activity in a nearby nerve fibre a phenomenon she named ephaptic coupling. Arvanitaki and her husband Chalazonitis both explored the methodology of electrophysiological activity of the nervous system of the sea hare genus ''

''. In 1955, Arvanitaki and Chalazonitis as well as Ladislav Tauc created the first intracellular recordings of large neurons of the

California sea hare The California sea hare (''Aplysia californica'') is a species of sea slug in the sea hare family, Aplysiidae.Rosenberg, G.; Bouchet, P. (2011). Aplysia californica J. G. Cooper, 1863. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http:// ...

. Arvanitaki's and Chalazonitis' explored photoexcitability of certain neurons. Arvanitaki's work was, however, overshadowed by Hodgkin and Huxley's work on the giant

axon An axon (from Greek ἄξων ''áxōn'', axis) or nerve fiber (or nerve fibre: see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, spelling differences) is a long, slender cellular extensions, projection of a nerve cell, or neuron, ...

of the

squid A squid (: squid) is a mollusc with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight cephalopod limb, arms, and two tentacles in the orders Myopsida, Oegopsida, and Bathyteuthida (though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arvanitaki, Angelique 1901 births 1983 deaths French biophysicists French neuroscientists Electrophysiologists Neurophysiologists Women physiologists French physiologists Egyptian biologists French women neuroscientists French people of Greek descent 20th-century French women scientists 20th-century French biologists 20th-century Egyptian scientists 20th-century Egyptian women scientists