[1] In 1815, Flourens pioneered the experimental method of carrying out localized lesions of the brain in living rabbits and pigeons and carefully observing their effects on motricity, sensibility and behavior.

His intention was to investigate localisationism, i.e., whether different parts of the brain had different functions, as the Austrian physician Franz Joseph Gall, the founder of phrenology, was proposing.

[citation needed] On the other hand, he was unable (probably because his experimental subjects have relatively primitive cortex) to find specific regions for memory and cognition, which led him to believe that they are represented in a diffuse form around the brain.

[citation needed] Flourens was chosen by Cuvier in 1828 to deliver a course of lectures on natural history at the Collège de France, and in the same year became, in succession to LAG Bosc, a member of the Institute, in the division "Economic rurale."

In 1833 Flourens, in accordance with the dying request of Cuvier, was appointed a perpetual secretary of the Academy of Sciences; and in 1838 he was returned as a deputy for the arrondissement of Béziers.

In 1840 he was elected, in preference to Victor Hugo, to succeed Jean François Michaud at the French Academy; and in 1845 he was created a commander of the légion d'honneur, and in the next year a peer of France.