Background
Angélique Arvanitaki was of Greek origin and was born in Cairo on 11 July 1901.
Angélique Arvanitaki was of Greek origin and was born in Cairo on 11 July 1901.
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 potentials were fired along isolated nerve fibres of the cuttlefish, 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.
In 1955, Arvanitaki and Chalazonitis as well as Ladislav Tauc created the first intracellular recordings of large neurons of the California sea hare. 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 of the squid.