Swiss Contribution to the Neurosciences in Fourhundred Years

A brief description of life and work of some 150 neuroscientists working in Switzerland and born between 1493 and 1939 is presented. Three Swiss neuroscientists have been awarded with the Nobel Price. Nearly one fourth of them have been foreign scholars. The contributions of 10 Swiss who spent the main part of their academic life abroad are also mentioned. A vast majority of the Swiss neuroscientists have profited from graduate or postgraduate studies at laboratories elsewhere in Europe or in North America. The disciplines covered in this article range from the work of the earliest pioneers and encyclopedists of the Renaissance to contemporary molecular neuroscience. Neurologically oriented branches of the behavioral sciences are also represented. Activities of clinical neurologists and neurosurgeons have been reported elsewhere.