Louis Lapicque

Lapicque, Louis 

Born Aug. 1, 1866, in Epinal; died Dec. 7, 1952, in Paris. French physiologist. Member of the Paris Academy of Sciences (1930) and the French Academy of Medicine (1925). Professor at the University of Paris from 1919 to 1936.

Lapicque’s principal works were devoted to an investigation of the factor of time in the generation and conduction of excitation in nerves and muscles. He introduced and provided theoretical grounds for a temporal index of tissue excitability, called chronaxie. He advanced the principle of isochronism, according to which the transmission of excitation from nerve to muscle is possible only when the chronaxie value of each is identical (or very close) to that of the other.

WORKS

L’Excitabilité en fonction du temps: La Chronaxie, sa signification et sa mesure. Paris, 1926.
La Machine nerveuse. Paris, 1943.
l’Isochronisme neuromusculaire et l’excitabilité rythmogène. Paris, 1947.

REFERENCES

Ufliand, lu. M. Teoriia i praktika khronaksimetrii. Leningrad, 1941.
“Louis Lapique, 1866–1952.” Journal of Neurophysiology. Springfield, 1953, vol. 16, no. 2.