Mircea Steriade, the master of cerebral rhythms

Abstract

Mircea Steriade (1924-2006), an outstanding Canadian neuroscientist of Romanian origin, has made an invaluable contribution in elucidating the mechanisms of sleep and epilepsy, the cellular basis of electroencephalography, the intrinsic properties of thalamic, cortical and brainstem neurons, as well as the description of dynamic network processing in the thalamocortical system. This article describes how the early scientific discoveries of Frédéric Bremer and Giuseppe Moruzzi have influenced Steriade at the beginning of his career. In addition, the article highlights Steriade’s scientific contributions to the understanding of the subcortico-cortical interactions, which marked the last decades of neurophysiology of the 20 th century and represent milestones in neuroscience. ntury and represent milestones in neuroscience.