Giuseppe Moruzzi, experimental epilepsy and reticular homeostasis: the French connection

Abstract

This is a brief history of the connection between Giuseppe Moruzzi and the French scientists at time when the EEG method was an important tool for both, neurologists and neurophysiologists, while cellular electrophysiology was only starting. A special interest will be given to the work of Moruzzi on the experimental epilepsy and his relative monograph, “L’epilessia Sperimentale” (1946) translated in French in 1950. This monograph started the connection between Moruzzi and French clinicians leading to the development of human and animal researches on epilepsy in France. Successively, the discovery of the “Ascending Reticular System” by Moruzzi and Magoun, (1949) raised a connection with already established scientists having intellectual relations with Moruzzi, exchanging theories and working hypotheses on the mechanism of sleep and wakefulness. During this period the Paul Dell’s concept of “Reticular Homeostasis” was achieved.