Jean Talairach (January 15, 1911 – March 15, 2007) was a

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...

and

neurosurgeon Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty that focuses on the surgical treatment or rehabilitation of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, ...

who practiced at the

Sainte-Anne Hospital Center The Sainte-Anne Hospital Center (French: ''Centre hospitalier Sainte-Anne'') is a hospital located in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, specializing in psychiatry, neurology, neurosurgery, neuroimaging and addiction. With its creation dating to ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, and who is noted for the

Talairach coordinates Jean Talairach (January 15, 1911 – March 15, 2007) was a psychiatrist and neurosurgery, neurosurgeon who practiced at the Sainte-Anne Hospital Center in Paris, and who is noted for the Talairach coordinates, which are relevant in stereotactic su ...

, which are relevant in stereotactic neurosurgery.

Early life

Talairach was the son of a pianist, and learned the

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

to a professional level. However, instead of pursuing a musical career, he then developed a passion for

geometry Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...

and

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

, and was particularly interested in the lecture halls in the medieval medical college in

Montpellier Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...

. This interest, in turn, led him to become interested in medicine, especially

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental disorder, mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, Mood (psychology), mood, emotion, and behavior. ...

. In 1938 he traveled to Paris to study medicine. He completed his doctoral studies at Ste. Anne's Hospital, one of the oldest and most renowned hospitals in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

World War II

During the German occupation of France in the

second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Talairach joined the

French resistance The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...

. He created a detailed map of the tunnels under Paris, which he gave to the allies. In 1944 he was inducted into the

Legion of honor The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and civil. Currently consisting of five classes, it was ...

Literature

J. Talairach and P. Tournoux, "Co-planar Stereotaxic Atlas of the Human Brain: 3-Dimensional Proportional System - an Approach to Cerebral Imaging", Thieme Medical Publishers, New York, 1988 J. Talairach and P. Tournoux, "Referentially Oriented Cerebral MRI Anatomy: An Atlas of Stereotaxic Anatomical Correlations for Gray and White Matter", Thieme Medical Publishers, New York, 1993 Electronic Talairach Atlases on CD-ROMs W.L. Nowinski, A. Thirunavuukarasuu, A.L. Benabid, "The Cerefy Clinical Brain Atlas: Enhanced Edition with Surgical Planning and Intraoperative Support", Thieme Medical Publishers, New York, 2005 W.L. Nowinski and A. Thirunavuukarasuu, "The Cerefy Clinical Brain Atlas on CD-ROM", Thieme Medical Publishers, New York, 2004 W.L. Nowinski, A. Thirunavuukarasuu, R.N. Bryan, "The Cerefy Atlas of Brain Anatomy: An Introduction to Reading Radiological Scans for Students, Teachers, and Researchers", Thieme Medical Publishers, New York, 2002 W.L. Nowinski, A. Thirunavuukarasuu, D.N. Kennedy, "Brain Atlas for Functional Imaging: Clinical and Research Applications", Thieme, New York, 2000 W.L. Nowinski, R.N. Bryan, R. Raghavan, "The Electronic Clinical Brain Atlas: Multiplanar Navigation of the Human Brain", Thieme Medical Publishers, New York, 1997 (foreword written by Dr. Jean Talairach)

External links

Anatomical labels in Talairach space

Overview of coordinate system

Cerefy website

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Talairach, Jean French neurosurgeons People from Perpignan 1911 births 2007 deaths 20th-century surgeons