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Angélique Arvanitaki (11 July, 1901-6 October, 1983) French Neurophysiologist.

Background
Angélique Arvanitaki was of Greek origin and born in Cairo on 11 July, 1901.

Research
Angelique Arvanitaki contributed to the field of neurophysiology with research exploring giant nerve fibres of species of snails, Aplysia and Helix. She developed the concept of ganglion preparation of large identifiable nerves.

She also discovered that, in low-calcium solutions, isolated nerve fibers of the cuttle fish Sepia (a relative of the octopus) produced regular electrical oscillations that periodically became larger and larger, until from time to time the nerve fired a series of action potentials. She was the first to demonstrate that spontaneous, rhythmically recurring activity could be an inherent property of a single nerve without the requirement of an entire neuronal circuit to generate it. She also found that when two or more nerves run close together, the activity in one nerve can entrain the activity in its neighbor. Her work was overshadowed by Hodgkin and Huxley’s work on the giant axon of the squid.

I had come to Woods Hole to receive instruction from Angelique Arvanitaki and her husband Nick Chalazonitis in the methodology of electrophysiological work on the nervous system of Aplysia. In 1955, ARVANITAKI and CHALAZONITIS~ and quite independently, TAUC,~ had performed the first intracellular recordings from the large neurons of Aplysiu. Arvanitaki’s and Chalazonitis’ early interests were in the photoexcitability of certain of the neurons and are well summarized in a 1960 publication.3 They were late in arriving at Woods Hole and this gave me the opportunity to learn in an inefficient, but creative way, by making mistakes.