A little history

Marseille, the second largest French neuroscience community.

Provence is a fertile ground for neuroscience. The region welcomed world-wide renowned researchers who made major discoveries:

• Jean-Henri Fabre was the first to describe pheromones and their effects on behaviour.
• Angélique Arvanitaki performed the very first intracellular recordings of large neurons and explored the photo-excitability of certain neurons.
• Robert Naquet and Henri Gastaut devised new techniques for the recording of brain waves and became world experts on epilepsy.
• Suzanne Tyc Dumont emerged as a world specialist of neuron networks and used informatics to perform the first neuron and brain modelling.
• François Clarac et Laurent Vinay discovered new mechanisms associated with developmental plasticity of the spinal cord, in normal and pathological conditions.

Today, Marseille is the second largest French neuroscience hub. Some hot topics – epilepsy, locomotion, neuronal networks – remain prevalent while others – neurodevelopment, brain modelling, neurodegenerative diseases – emerged.