Pavlov, Ivan Petrovich
(born in 1849) - physiologist, son of a priest of the Ryazan province. He graduated from the course of science at the Medical-Surgical Academy. in 1879, in 1884 he was appointed privat-docent of physiology and in the same year received a business trip for 2 years abroad with scientific purpose; in 1890 he was appointed extraordinary professor at Tomsk University. in the Department of Pharmacology, but in the same year was moved to Imp. military medical acad. extraordinary professor, and since 1897 ordinary professor of the academy.
Outstanding scientific works of prof. P. can be divided into 3 groups: 1) work related to the innervation of the heart; 2) work related to the Ekkov operation; 3) work regarding the secretory activity of the glands of the digestive tract. When assessing his scientific activity, one must take into account the totality of scientific results achieved by his laboratory, in which his students worked with the participation of himself. In the 1st group of works concerning the innervation of the heart, prof. P. experimentally showed that during its work the heart is regulated, in addition to the already known delaying and accelerating nerves, also by the strengthening nerve, and at the same time he gives facts that give the right to think about the existence of weakening nerves. In the 2nd group of works, P., having actually carried out the operation of connecting the portal vein with the inferior cava, previously conceived by Dr. Eck, and thus arranging a bypass of the liver with blood carried from the digestive tract, pointed out the importance of the liver as a purifier of harmful products carried with blood from the digestive canal, and together with prof. He also pointed out to Nensky the purpose of the liver in the processing of carbamide ammonia; Thanks to this operation, in all likelihood, it will be possible to clarify many more important questions, one way or another related to the activity of the liver. Finally, the 3rd group of works and the most extensive, clarifies the regulation of the separation of the glands of the gastrointestinal canal, which became possible only after the execution of a number of operations conceived and carried out by P. Of these, esophagotomy should be put in the foreground, i.e. cutting the esophagus in the neck and engraftment its ends apart at the corners of the wound, which made it possible to accurately determine the full meaning of appetite and observe the secreted pure gastric juice (from the gastric fistula) due to mental influence (appetite). No less important is his operation of forming a double stomach with preserved innervation; the latter made it possible to monitor the secretion of gastric juice and to clarify the entire mechanism of this separation during normal digestion in the other stomach. Then he developed a method for forming a permanent fistula of the pancreatic duct: namely, by sewing it with a piece of the mucous membrane, he obtained a fistula that remained indefinitely. Using both these operations and others, he found out that the mucous membrane of the gastrointestinal canal has, like the skin, a specific excitability - it seems to understand that it is given bread, meat, water, etc. and in response to This food is sent by one or another juice and of one or another composition. With one food, more gastric juice is secreted and with a greater or lesser content of acid or enzyme, with another there is increased activity of the pancreas, with a third liver, with a fourth we can observe a brake for one gland, and at the same time increased activity of another, etc. Pointing to This specific excitability of the mucous membrane, he also indicated the neural pathways along which the brain sends impulses for this activity - he pointed out the importance of the vagus and sympathetic nerves for the sections of the stomach and pancreas. From the works we will mention: from the 1st group - “Strengthening nerve of the heart” (“Weekly Clinical Newspaper”, 1888); 2nd group: “Ekkovsky fistula of the inferior vena cava and portal veins and its consequences for the body” (Archive of Biological Sciences of the Imperial Institute of Experimental Medicine (1892 vol., I); from the 3rd “Lecture on the work of the main digestive glands” (1897; all related works of P. himself and his students are indicated here.) He also authored the study: “Centrifugal nerves of the heart” (St. Petersburg, 1883).
(Brockhaus)
Pavlov, Ivan Petrovich
Rus. scientist-physiologist, creator of materialistic science. doctrines of higher nervous activity of animals and humans, Acad. (since 1907, corresponding member since 1901). P. developed new physiological principles. research that provides knowledge of the activity of the organism as a single whole, located in unity and constant interaction with its environment. Studying the highest manifestation of life - the higher nervous activity of animals and humans, P. laid the foundations of materialistic psychology.
P. was born in Ryazan into the family of a priest. After graduating from the Ryazan Theological School, he entered the Ryazan Theological Seminary in 1864. The years of study at the seminary coincided with the rapid development of natural science in Russia. P.’s worldview was greatly influenced by the ideas of the great Russian thinkers, revolutionary democrats A. I. Herzen, V. G. Belinsky, N. G. Chernyshevsky, N. A. Dobrolyubov, and the works of the educational publicist D. I. Pisarev and others. .and especially the work of the “father of Russian physiology” I.M. Sechenov - “Reflexes of the Brain” (1863). Fascinated by the natural sciences, P. entered St. Petersburg in 1870. univ. While studying in the natural sciences department of physics and mathematics. fact, II. worked in the laboratory under the guidance of the famous physiologist I. F. Tsion, where he performed several scientific research; for the work “On the nerves that control the work in the pancreas” (jointly with M. M. Afanasyev), the university council awarded him a gold medal in 1875. Upon graduation from university (1875) II. entered the third year of medical-surgical. Academy and at the same time worked (1876-78) in the laboratory of prof. physiology by K. N. Ustimovich. While taking the course at the academy, he carried out a number of experimental works, for which he was awarded a gold medal (1880). In 1879 he graduated from Medical-Surgical. Academy (reorganized in 1881 into the Military Medical Academy) and was left with it for improvement. Back in 1879, P., at the invitation of S.P. Botkin, began working in physiology. laboratories at his clinic (later he headed this laboratory); P. worked there for approx. 10 years, actually managing all pharmacological. and physiological research.
In 1883 P. defended his dissertation. for the degree of Doctor of Medicine and the following year received the title of private associate professor of Military Medical. academies; since 1890 he was prof. there in the department of pharmacology, and from 1895 - in the department of physiology, where he worked until 1925. Since 1891, he was also in charge of physiology. department of the Institute of Experimental Medicine, organized with his active participation. Working for 45 years within the walls of this institute, P. carried out major research on the physiology of digestion and developed the doctrine of conditioned reflexes. In 1913, for research into higher nervous activity, on P.’s initiative, a special building was built at the Institute of Experimental Medicine, in which for the first time soundproof chambers were equipped for the study of conditioned reflexes (the so-called tower of silence).
P.'s creativity reached its greatest flourishing after the Great October Revolution. socialist revolution. Communist the party and the Soviet government always provided P. with constant support, surrounding him with attention and care. In 1921, signed by V.I. Lenin, a special decree of the Council of People's Commissars was issued on the creation of conditions ensuring scientific work P. Later, for P., according to his plans, Biological. station in the village Koltushi (now the village of Pavlovo) near Leningrad, which became, in P.’s words, “the capital of conditioned reflexes.”
P.'s works have received recognition from scientists all over the world. During his lifetime he was awarded honorary titles from numerous domestic and foreign scientific institutions, academies, universities and various societies. In 1935, at the 15th International Congress of Physiologists (Leningrad - Moscow), he was crowned with the honorary title of “elder of physiologists of the world.”
I.P. Pavlov died at the age of 87 in Leningrad. He was buried at the Volkov cemetery.
During the first period of scientific activity (1874-88), P. was mainly engaged in the study of the physiology of the cardiovascular system. His diss relates to this time. “Centrifugal nerves of the heart” (1883), in which the existence of special nerve fibers that strengthen and weaken the activity of the heart was shown for the first time in the heart of a warm-blooded animal. Based on his research, P. suggested that the amplifying nerve he discovered exerts its effect on the heart by changing the metabolism in the heart muscle. Developing these ideas, P. later created the doctrine of trophic. functions of the nervous system (“On trophic innervation”, 1922).
A number of P.’s works dating back to this period are devoted to the study of the nervous mechanisms of blood pressure regulation. In exceptionally thorough and accurate experiments, he established that any change in blood pressure reflexively causes such changes in the cardiovascular system, which lead to the return of blood pressure to the original level. P. believed that such reflex self-regulation of the cardiovascular system is possible only due to the presence of receptors with specific properties in the walls of blood vessels. sensitivity to fluctuations in blood pressure and other irritants (physical or chemical). With further research, P. and his colleagues proved that the principle of reflex self-regulation is a universal principle of functioning not only of the cardiovascular, but also of all other systems of the body.
Already in his work on the physiology of blood circulation, P.'s high skill and innovative approach to conducting experiments were evident. Having set himself the task of studying the effect of ingesting liquid and dry food on a dog’s blood pressure, P. boldly departs from traditional acute experiments on anesthetized animals and is looking for new research techniques. He accustoms the dog to experience and, through long training, ensures that without anesthesia it is possible to dissect a thin arterial branch on the dog's paw and re-record the blood pressure over many hours after various influences. Methodical the approach to solving the problem in this (one of the first) work is very important, since in it one can see, as it were, the emergence of a remarkable method of chronic experience, developed by P. during the period of his research on the physiology of digestion. Another major experimental achievement was P.’s creation of a new method for studying the activity of the heart using the so-called. cardiopulmonary drug (1886); Only a few years later, in a very similar form, a similar cardiopulmonary drug was described in English. physiologist E. Starling, after whom this drug was incorrectly named.
Along with work in the field of physiology of the cardiovascular system, P. during the first period of his activity was engaged in the study of certain issues of the physiology of digestion. But systematically He began to conduct research in this area only in 1891 in the laboratory of the Institute of Experimental Medicine. The guiding idea in these works, as well as in studies on blood circulation, was the idea of nervism, adopted by P. from Botkin and Sechenov, by which he understood a “physiological direction” that seeks to extend the influence of the nervous system to the greatest possible number of body activities" ( Pavlov I.P., Complete collection of works, vol. 1, 2nd ed., 1951, p. 197).However, the study of the regulatory function of the nervous system (in the process of digestion) in a healthy normal animal could not be carried out with methodological possibilities , which the physiology of that time had.
Creating new methods, new techniques" physiological thinking“P. devoted a number of years. He developed special operations on the organs of the digestive tract and introduced into practice the method of chronic experiment, which made it possible to study the activity of the digestive apparatus on a healthy animal. In 1879, P., for the first time in the history of physiology, imposed a chronic fistula of the pancreatic duct. Later they proposed an operation for a chronic fistula of the bile duct. Under the leadership of P. in 1895, D. L. Glinsky developed a technique for applying a simple and convenient fistula of the ducts of the salivary glands, which later had exceptional significance in the creation of the doctrine of higher nervous activity. One of the most remarkable achievements The physiological experiment was a method created by P. in 1894 for monitoring the activity of the gastric glands by separating part of it from the stomach in the form of an isolated (solitary) ventricle, which completely preserves the nerve connections with the central nervous system (small ventricle according to Pavlov).In 1889, P., together with E. O. Shumova-Simanovskaya developed an esophagotomy operation in combination with gastrostomy on dogs. An experiment with imaginary feeding was carried out on esophagotomized animals with a gastric fistula - the most outstanding experiment in physiology of the 19th century. Subsequently, this operation was used by P. to obtain pure gastric juice for medicinal use.
Mastering all these methods, P. actually re-created the physiology of digestion; for the first time, with extreme clarity, he showed the leading role of the nervous system in regulating the activity of the entire digestive process. P. studied the dynamics of the secretory process of the gastric, pancreas and salivary glands and the functioning of the liver when consuming various nutrients and proved their ability to adapt to the nature of the secretion agents used.
In 1897 P. published. the famous work - "Lectures on the work of the main digestive glands", which became a reference guide for physiologists around the world. For this work in 1904 he was awarded the Nobel Prize.
Like Botkin, he sought to combine the interests of physiology and medicine. This was expressed, in particular, in his justification and development of the principle of experimental therapy. P. was engaged in the search for scientifically based methods of treating experimentally created pathologies. states. In direct connection with his work on experimental therapy are his pharmacological studies. problems. P. considered pharmacology as a theoretical one. honey. discipline, development paths are closely related to experimental therapy.
The study of the connections of the organism with its environment, carried out with the help of the nervous system, the study of the patterns that determine the normal behavior of the organism in its natural relationships with environment, determined P.’s transition to studying the functions of the cerebral hemispheres. The immediate reason for this was his observations of the so-called. psychic secretion of saliva in animals, occurring at the sight or smell of food, under the influence of various stimuli associated with food intake, etc. Considering the essence of this phenomenon, P. was able, based on Sechenov’s statements about the reflex nature of all manifestations of brain activity, to understand that the phenomenon is mental. secretion allows the physiologist to objectively study the so-called. mental activity.
“After persistently pondering the subject, after a difficult mental struggle, I finally decided,” wrote Pavlov, “even before the so-called mental excitement, to remain in the role of a pure physiologist, that is, an objective external observer and experimenter, dealing exclusively with external phenomena and their relationships" (Complete collection of works, vol. 3, book 1, 2nd ed., 1951, p. 14). P. called an unconditioned reflex a constant connection between an external agent and the body's response to it, while a temporary connection formed during an individual's life - a conditioned reflex.
With the introduction of the method of conditioned reflexes, there was no longer any need to speculate about the internal state of the animal when exposed to various stimuli. All the activities of the body, previously studied only using subjective methods, became available for objective study; the opportunity opened up to learn experimentally the connection between the organism and the external environment. The conditioned reflex itself has become, in P.’s words, a “central phenomenon” for physiology, using the Crimea it has become possible to study both normal and pathological more fully and accurately. activity of the cerebral hemispheres. P. first reported on conditioned reflexes in 1903 in the report “Experimental psychology and psychopathology in animals” at the 14th International Medical Sciences. congress in Madrid.
For many years, P., together with numerous collaborators and students, developed the doctrine of higher nervous activity. Step by step, the subtlest mechanisms of cortical activity were revealed, the relationship between the cerebral cortex and the underlying parts of the nervous system was clarified, and the patterns of the processes of excitation and inhibition in the cortex were studied. It was found that these processes are in close and inextricable connection with each other, capable of widely radiating, concentrating and mutually influencing each other. According to P., all the analyzing and synthesizing activity of the cerebral cortex is based on the complex interaction of these two processes. These ideas created the physiological. the basis for studying the activity of the senses, which before P. was built largely on the subjective method of research.
Deep penetration into the dynamics of cortical processes allowed P. to show that the basis of the phenomena of sleep and hypnosis is the process of internal inhibition, which widely radiated throughout the cerebral cortex and descended to the subcortical formations. Many years of studying the characteristics of the conditioned reflex activity of various animals allowed P. to classify the types of the nervous system. An important section of the research of P. and his students was the study of pathological. deviations in the activity of the higher nervous system, occurring both as a result of various operational effects on the cerebral hemispheres, and as a result of functional changes, the so-called. breakdowns, conflicts leading to the development of “experimental neuroses”. Based on the study of experimentally reproducible neurotic. states II. outlined new ways of their treatment, gave physiological. rationale for therapeutic effects of bromine and caffeine.
IN last years During his life, P.'s attention was drawn to the study of higher nervous activity in humans. Studying the qualitative differences in the higher nervous activity of humans in comparison with animals, he put forward the doctrine of two signal systems of reality: the first - common to humans and animals, and the second - characteristic only of humans. The second signaling system, being inextricably linked with the first, ensures the formation of words in a person - “pronounced, audible and visible”. The word is a signal of signals for a person and allows for distraction and the formation of concepts. With the help of the second signaling system, higher human abstract thinking is carried out. The totality of the studies carried out allowed P. to come to the conclusion that the cerebral cortex in higher animals and humans is “the manager and distributor of all the activities of the body,” “keeps under its control all phenomena occurring in the body,” and thus provides the most subtle and perfect balancing of a living organism in the external environment.
In the works “Twenty years of experience in the objective study of higher nervous activity (behavior) of animals. Conditioned reflexes” (1923) and “Lectures on the work of the cerebral hemispheres” (1927), P. summed up the results of many years of research and gave a complete systematic. presentation of the doctrine of higher nervous activity.
P.'s teaching fully confirms the fundamentals. dialectical positions materialism that matter is the source of sensations, that consciousness, thinking is a product of matter that has reached a high level of perfection in its development, namely a product of the brain. P. was the first to clearly show that all life processes of animals and humans are inextricably linked and interdependent, in movement and development, that they are subject to strict objective laws. P. constantly emphasized the need to know these laws in order to learn how to manage them.
P.’s tireless and passionate activity and his irreconcilable struggle against idealism and metaphysics are associated with an unshakable faith in the powers of science and practice. P.'s teaching on higher nervous activity is highly theoretical. and practical meaning. It expands the natural scientific basis of dialectic. materialism, confirms the correctness of the provisions of Lenin's theory of reflection and serves as a sharp weapon in ideological. the fight against any and all manifestations of idealism.
P. was a great son of his people. Love for the fatherland, pride for his homeland permeated all his thoughts and actions. “Whatever I do,” he wrote, “I constantly think that I am serving as much as my strength allows me, first of all, my fatherland, our Russian science. And this is both the strongest motivation and deep satisfaction” (Complete collection, vol. 1, 2nd ed., 1951, p. 12). Noting the concern of the Soviet government about encouraging scientific research, P. at the government reception of the delegation of the 15th International Congress of Physiologists in Moscow in 1935 said “... we, the heads of scientific institutions, are directly in anxiety and worry about whether we will be in able to justify all the funds that the government provides us." P. also spoke about a high sense of responsibility to the Motherland in his famous letter to young people, written by him shortly before his death (see Complete collection of works, 2nd ed., vol. 1, 1951, pp. 22-23).
Numerous students and followers of P. successfully develop his teaching. At the joint session of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Medicine. Sciences of the USSR (1950), dedicated to the problem of physiological. P.’s teachings, further ways of developing this teaching were outlined.
P.'s name was assigned to a number of scientific institutions and educational institutions(Institute of Physiology of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1st Leningrad Medical Institute, Ryazan Medical Institute, etc.). The Academy of Sciences of the USSR established: in 1934 - the Pavlov Prize, awarded for the best scientific work in the field of physiology, and in 1949 - a gold medal named after him, for a set of works on the development of P.
Op.: Complete collection works, vol. 1-6, 2nd ed., M., 1951-52; Selected works, ed. E. A. Asratyan, M., 1951.
Lit.: Ukhtomsky A. A., The Great Physiologist [Obituary], “Priroda”, 1936, No. 3; Bykov K. M., I. P. Pavlov - the elder of physiologists of the world, L., 1948; his, Life and work of Ivan Petrovich Pavlov. Report... M.-L., 1949; Asratyan E. A., I. P. Pavlov. Life and scientific creativity, M.-L., 1949; Ivan Petrovich Pavlov. , Intro. article by E. Sh. Airapetyants and K. M. Bykov, M.-L., 1949 (Academic Sciences of the USSR. Materials for the biobibliography of scientists of the USSR. Series of biological sciences. Physiology, issue 3); Babsky E. B., I. P. Pavlov. 1849-1936; M., 1949; Biryukov D. A., Ivan Petrovich Pavlov. Life and activity, M., 1949; Anokhin P.K., Ivan Petrovich Pavlov. Life, activity and scientific school, M.-L., 1949; Koshtoyants Kh. S., A story about the work of I. P. Pavlov in the field of physiology of digestion, 4th ed., M.-L., 1950; Bibliography of the works of I. P. Pavlov and literature about him, ed. E. Sh. Airapetyantsa, M.-L., 1954.
P A Vlov, Ivan Petrovich
Genus. 1849, d. 1936. Innovative physiologist, creator of the materialist doctrine of higher nervous activity. Author of the conditioned reflex method. He was the first to establish and prove the connection between mental activity and physiological processes in the cerebral cortex. He made an invaluable contribution to the development of physiology, medicine, psychology and pedagogy. Author of fundamental classical works on the physiology of blood circulation and digestion. He introduced a chronic experiment into research practice, thereby making it possible to study the activity of a practically healthy organism. Laureate Nobel Prize(1904). Since 1907, full member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1917), academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1925).
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Soviet physiologist, creator of the materialistic doctrine of higher nervous activity and modern ideas about the digestive process; founder of the largest Soviet physiological school;... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
An outstanding doctor, physiologist and scientist who laid the foundation for the development of higher nervous activity as an independent branch of science. Over the years of his life, he became the author of many scientific articles, and achieved universal recognition, becoming a Nobel Prize laureate in the field of medicine, but the most important achievement in his entire life, of course, can be considered the discovery of the conditioned reflex, as well as several theories of the functioning of the human cerebral cortex , based on many years of clinical trials.
With his scientific research, Ivan Petrovich was many years ahead of the development of medicine, and achieved amazing results that made it possible to significantly expand people's knowledge about the work of the whole organism and, in particular, all the processes occurring in the cerebral cortex. Pavlov came seriously closer to understanding the meaning and immediate necessity of sleep as a physiological process, understood the structure and influence of individual parts of the brain on certain types of activity, and took many more important steps in understanding the work of all internal systems of humans and animals. Of course, some of Pavlov’s works were subsequently adjusted and corrected in accordance with the receipt of new data, and even the concept of a conditioned reflex is now used in a much narrower meaning than at the time of its discovery, but Ivan Petrovich’s contribution to physiology simply cannot be ignored by dignity.
Training and start of research
Dr. Pavlov became keenly interested in the processes occurring in the human brain directly and reflexes in 1869, while studying at the Ryazan Theological Seminary, after reading Professor Sechenov’s book “Reflexes of the Brain.” It was thanks to her that he dropped out of law school and began studying animal physiology at St. Petersburg University under the guidance of Professor Zion, who taught the young and promising student his professional surgical technique, which was legendary at that time. Then Pavlov’s career quickly took off. During his studies, he worked in the physiological laboratory of Ustimovich, and then received the position of head of his own physiological laboratory at the Botkin clinic.
During this period, he actively began to engage in his research, and one of the most important goals for Ivan Petrovich was the creation of a fistula - a special opening in the stomach. He dedicated more than 10 years of his life to this, because this operation is very difficult due to gastric juice that eats away at the walls. However, in the end, Pavlov was able to achieve positive results, and soon he could carry out a similar operation on any animals. In parallel with this, Pavlov defended his dissertation “On the centrifugal nerves of the heart,” and also studied abroad in Leipzeg, working together with outstanding physiologists of that time. A little later, he was also awarded the title of member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.
The concept of a conditioned reflex and animal experiments
Around the same time, he achieved success in his main specialized research, and formed the concept of a conditioned reflex. In his experiments, he achieved the production of gastric juice in dogs under the influence of certain conditioned stimuli, such as a flashing light or a certain sound signal. To study the effects of acquired reflexes, he equipped a laboratory completely isolated from external influences, in which he could fully regulate all types of stimuli. Through a simple operation, he removed the dog's salivary gland outside its body, and thus measured the amount of saliva secreted during the demonstration of certain conditioned or absolute stimuli.
Also, in the course of his research, he formed the concept of weak and strong impulses that can be shifted in the necessary direction in order, for example, to achieve the release of gastric juice even without direct feeding or demonstration of food. He also introduced the concept of the trace reflex, which actively manifests itself in children aged two years and older, and significantly contributes to the development of brain activity and the acquisition of various habits in the first stages of human and animal life.
Pavlov presented the results of his many years of research in his report in 1093 in Madrid, for which a year later he received worldwide recognition and the Nobel Prize in biology. However, he did not stop his research, and over the next 35 years he was engaged in various studies, almost completely remaking scientists’ ideas about the functioning of the brain and reflex processes.
He actively collaborated with foreign colleagues and regularly conducted various seminars international level, willingly shared the results of his work with colleagues, and over the last fifteen years of his life he actively trained young specialists, many of whom became his direct followers and were able to penetrate even deeper into the secrets of the human brain and behavioral characteristics.
Consequences of Dr. Pavlov's activities
It is worth noting that Ivan Petrovich Pavlov until the very last day conducted various studies in his life, and largely thanks to this outstanding scientist in all respects, in our time medicine is at exactly this point. high level. His work helped to understand not only the peculiarities of brain activity, but also in terms of the general principles of physiology, and it was Pavlov’s followers who, on the basis of his work, discovered the patterns of hereditary transmission of certain diseases. It is especially worth noting the contribution he made to veterinary medicine, and in particular to animal surgery, which reached a fundamentally new level during his lifetime.
Ivan Petrovich left a huge mark on world science, and was remembered by his contemporaries as an outstanding personality, ready to sacrifice his own benefits and conveniences for the sake of science. This great person He stopped at nothing and was able to achieve amazing results that no progressive scientific researcher has yet been able to achieve.
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov is one of the most famous physiologists in the world, eclipsing his teachers, a bold experimenter, the first Russian Nobel Prize laureate, a possible prototype of Bulgakov's professor Preobrazhensky.
Surprisingly, in his homeland they know quite little about his personality. We have studied the biography of this outstanding man and will tell you a few facts about his life and legacy.
1.
Ivan Pavlov was born into the family of a Ryazan priest. After theological school, he entered the seminary, but, contrary to his father’s wishes, did not become a clergyman. In 1870, Pavlov came across Ivan Sechenov’s book “Reflexes of the Brain”, became interested in physiology and entered St. Petersburg University. Pavlov's specialty was animal physiology.
2.
In Pavlov's first year, Pavlov's inorganic chemistry teacher was Dmitri Mendeleev, who had published his periodic table the year before. And Pavlov’s younger brother worked as an assistant for Mendeleev.
3.
Pavlov's favorite teacher was Ilya Tsion, one of the most controversial personalities of his time. Pavlov wrote about him: “We were directly amazed by his masterfully simple presentation of the most complex physiological issues and his truly artistic ability to carry out experiments. Such a teacher is not forgotten throughout his life.”
Zion irritated many colleagues and students with his integrity and integrity; he was a vivisector, an anti-Darwinist, and quarreled with Sechenov and Turgenev.
Once, at an art exhibition, he got into a fight with the artist Vasily Vereshchagin (Vereshchagin hit him on the nose with his hat, and Tsion claimed that he hit him with a candlestick). It is believed that Zion was one of the compilers of the “Protocol of the Elders of Zion.”
4.
Pavlov was an implacable opponent of communism. “You are in vain to believe in world revolution. You are spreading not revolution across the cultural world, but fascism with enormous success. There was no fascism before your revolution,” he wrote to Molotov in 1934.
When the purges of the intelligentsia began, Pavlov wrote to Stalin in rage: “Today I am ashamed that I am Russian.” But even for such statements the scientist was not touched.
Nikolai Bukharin defended him, and Molotov sent letters to Stalin with the signature: “Today the Council of People’s Commissars received a new nonsense letter from Academician Pavlov.”
The scientist was not afraid of punishment. “The revolution found me at almost 70 years old. And somehow a firm conviction ingrained itself in me that the length of an active human life is exactly 70 years. And that is why I boldly and openly criticized the revolution. I told myself: “To hell with them!” Let them shoot. Life is over anyway, I will do what my dignity demanded of me.”
5.
Pavlov's children's names were Vladimir, Vera, Victor and Vsevolod. The only child whose name did not begin with V was Mirchik Pavlov, who died in infancy. The youngest, Vsevolod, also lived a short life: he died a year before his father.
6.
Many eminent guests visited the village of Koltushi, where Pavlov lived.
In 1934, Nobel laureate Niels Bohr and his wife and science fiction writer Herbert Wells and his son, zoologist George Philip Wells, visited Pavlov.
A few years earlier, H.G. Wells wrote an article about Pavlov for The New York Times, which contributed to the popularity of the Russian scientist in the West. After reading this article, the young literary critic Berres Frederick Skinner decided to change his career and became a behavioral psychologist. In 1972, Skinner was named the most outstanding psychologist of the 20th century by the American Psychological Association.
7.
Pavlov was a passionate collector. At first, he collected butterflies: he grew them, caught them, and begged them from traveling friends (the pearl of the collection was a bright blue butterfly with a metallic sheen from Madagascar). Then he became interested in stamps: a Siamese prince once gave him stamps from his state. For every birthday of one of the family members, Pavlov gave him another collection of works.
Pavlov had a collection of paintings, which began with a portrait of his son, which was painted by Nikolai Yaroshenko.
Pavlov explained his passion for collecting as a reflex of purpose. “The life of only one is red and strong who, all his life, strives for a goal that is constantly achieved, but never achievable, or moves from one goal to another with the same ardor. All life, all its improvements, all its culture becomes a reflex of a goal, is done only by people striving for one or another goal they have set for themselves in life.”
8.
Pavlov’s favorite painting was Vasnetsov’s “Three Heroes”: the physiologist saw in Ilya, Dobrynya and Alyosha images of three temperaments.
9.
On the far side of the Moon, next to the Jules Verne crater, is the Pavlov crater. And circling between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter is the asteroid (1007) Pavlovia, also named after the physiologist.
10.
Pavlov received the Nobel Prize for a series of works on the physiology of the digestive tract in 1904, eight years after the death of its founder. But in his Nobel speech, the laureate said that their paths had already crossed.
Ten years earlier, Nobel had sent Pavlov and his colleague Marcellius Nenetsky a large sum to support their laboratories.
“Alfred Nobel showed a keen interest in physiological experiments and offered us several very instructive experimental projects that touched on the highest tasks of physiology, the issue of aging and dying of organisms.” Thus, he can be considered to have received the Nobel Prize twice.
This is the kind of personality hidden behind the big name and stern white beard of the academician.
A frame from the movie “Heart of a Dog” was used in the design of the article.
(1904) in physiology and medicine, author of the doctrine of higher nervous activity. Born September 26 (14), 1849 in Ryazan. Was the eldest son in large family parish priest, who considered it his duty to give children a good education. In 1860, Pavlov was immediately admitted to the second class of the Ryazan Theological School. After graduating in 1864, he entered the theological seminary. Six years later, under the influence of the ideas of Russian revolutionary democrats, especially the works of Pisarev, and Sechenov’s monograph Brain reflexes left his studies at the seminary and entered the university. Due to the restrictions that existed at that time in choosing a faculty for seminarians, Pavlov first entered the Faculty of Law in 1870, then transferred to the natural sciences department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics.
At that time, among the university professors there were outstanding scientists - D.I. Mendeleev, A.M. Butlerov, F.V. Ovsyannikov, I.F. Tsion. In the third year of the university, not without the influence of Tsion, Pavlov decides to specialize in the field physiology.
In 1875 Pavlov graduated from the university with a candidate's degree in natural sciences. Zion invited him to become his assistant at the Department of Physiology of the Medical-Surgical Academy (since 1881 - Military Medical Academy, Military Medical Academy). He convinced the assistant to also get medical education). In the same year, Pavlov entered the Moscow Art Academy in his third year and received a doctor’s diploma in 1879.
After Tsion left the academy, Pavlov refused the position of assistant at the department of physiology, offered to him by the new head of the department, I.R. Tarkhanov. He decided to stay at the Moscow Art Academy only as a student. Later he became an assistant to Professor K.N. Ustimovich at the Department of Physiology of the Veterinary Department of the Medical-Surgical Academy, where he did a number of works on the physiology of blood circulation.
In 1878, the famous Russian clinician Botkin invited Pavlov to work in his clinic (he worked here until 1890, conducting research on the centrifugal nerves of the heart and working on his doctoral dissertation; from 1886 he was the head of the clinic).
In the late 70s I met my future wife, S.V. Karchevskaya. The wedding took place in May 1881; in 1884 the couple left for Germany, where Pavlov trained in the laboratories of the leading physiologists of that time, R. Heidenhain and K. Ludwig.
In 1890 he was elected professor and head of the Department of Pharmacology at the Military Medical Academy, and in 1896 - head of the Department of Physiology, which he headed until 1924. Since 1890, Pavlov also headed the physiological laboratory at the Institute of Experimental Medicine.
From 1925 until the end of his life, Pavlov headed the Institute of Physiology of the Academy of Sciences.
In 1904, he was the first Russian scientist to be awarded the Nobel Prize for his work in the field of digestive physiology.
Pavlov was elected a member and honorary member of many foreign academies, universities, and societies. In 1935, at the 15th International Congress of Physiologists, he was recognized as the oldest physiologist in the world for his many years of scientific work.
All scientific creativity of the scientist is united general principle, which at that time was called nervism - the idea of the leading role of the nervous system in regulating the activity of organs and systems of the body.
Scientific method.
Before Pavlov, research was carried out using the so-called. “acute experience”, the essence of which was that the organ of interest to the scientist was exposed with the help of incisions on the body of an anesthetized or immobilized animal. The method was unsuitable for studying the normal course of life processes, since it disrupted the natural connection between the organs and systems of the body. Pavlov was the first physiologist to use the “chronic method,” in which an experiment is carried out on a practically healthy animal, which made it possible to study physiological processes in an undistorted form.
Research on the physiology of blood circulation.
One of Pavlov's first scientific studies was devoted to studying the role of the nervous system in the regulation of blood circulation. The scientist found that cutting the vagus nerves that innervate the internal organs leads to profound impairments in the body’s ability to regulate blood pressure. As a result, it was concluded that significant pressure fluctuations are detected by sensitive nerve endings in the vasculature, which send impulses signaling changes to the corresponding center of the brain. These impulses give rise to reflexes aimed at changing the work of the heart and the state of the vascular bed, and arterial pressure quickly returns to the most favorable level.
Pavlov's doctoral dissertation was devoted to the study of the centrifugal nerves of the heart. The scientist proved the presence of “triple nerve control” on the heart: functional nerves that cause or interrupt the activity of the organ; vascular nerves, which regulate the delivery of chemical material to the organ, and trophic nerves, which determine the exact size of the final utilization of this material by each organ and thereby regulate the vitality of the tissue. The scientist assumed the same triple control in other organs.
Research on the physiology of digestion.
The method of “chronic experiment” allowed Pavlov to discover many laws of the functioning of the digestive glands and the digestive process in general. Before Pavlov, there were only some very vague and fragmentary ideas about this, and the physiology of digestion was one of the most backward sections of physiology.
Pavlov's first research in this area was devoted to studying the functioning of the salivary glands. The scientist established a relationship between the composition and amount of saliva secreted and the nature of the irritant, which allowed him to draw a conclusion about the specific excitability of different receptors in the oral cavity by each of the irritating agents.
Research concerning the physiology of the stomach is Pavlov's most significant achievement in explaining the processes of digestion. The scientist proved the existence of nervous regulation of the activity of the gastric glands.
Thanks to the improvement of the operation to create an isolated ventricle, it was possible to distinguish two phases of gastric juice secretion: neuro-reflex and humoral-clinical. The result of the scientist’s research in the field of digestive physiology was his work entitled Lectures on the work of the main digestive glands, published in 1897. This work was translated into German, French and English languages and brought Pavlov worldwide fame.
Research on the physiology of higher nervous activity.
Pavlov moved on to the study of the physiology of higher nervous activity, trying to explain the phenomenon of mental salivation. The study of this phenomenon led him to the concept of a conditioned reflex. A conditioned reflex, unlike an unconditioned one, is not innate, but is acquired as a result of the accumulation of individual life experience and is an adaptive reaction of the body to living conditions. Pavlov called the process of formation of conditioned reflexes higher nervous activity and considered this concept equivalent to the term “mental activity.”
The scientist identified four types of higher nervous activity in humans, which are based on ideas about the relationship between the processes of excitation and inhibition. Thus, he laid a physiological foundation for the teachings of Hippocrates on temperaments.
Pavlov also developed the doctrine of signal systems. According to Pavlov, specific feature A person has, in addition to the first signaling system, common with animals (various sensory stimuli coming from the outside world), also a second signaling system - speech and writing.
The main goal of Pavlov's scientific activity was to study the human psyche using objective experimental methods.
Pavlov formulated ideas about the analytical-synthetic activity of the brain and created the doctrine of analyzers, the localization of functions in the cerebral cortex and the systematic nature of the work of the cerebral hemispheres.
Publications: Pavlov I.P. Full composition of writings, 2nd ed., vol. 1–6, M., 1951–1952; Selected works, M., 1951.
Artem Movsesyan
Federal Agency for Education of the Russian Federation
State educational institution higher professional education
Ufa State Aviation Technical University
Department of Sociology and Social Technologies
Test on psychology and pedagogy
on this topic:
Scientific works of I.P. Pavlova, their significance for modern psychology
Ufa 2008
Introduction........................................................ ........................................... 3
Scientific works of I.P. Pavlov.................................................... ................... 5
In the field of physiology of the cardiovascular system........... 5
In the field of digestive physiology................................................... 5
On the study of higher nervous activity................................... 8
3. Death of a great scientist.................................................... ........................ 16
4. Conclusion................................................... ........................................... 17
5. List of used literature................................................... ..... 18
Introduction
PAVLOV Ivan Petrovich
(1849-1936)
Russian physiologist, creator of the materialist doctrine of higher nervous activity, the largest physiological school.
Using the method of conditioned reflexes he developed, he established that the basis mental activity are the physiological processes occurring in the cerebral cortex. Pavlov's research into the physiology of higher nervous activity (2nd signal system, types of nervous system, localization of functions, systematic functioning of the cerebral hemispheres, etc.) had a great influence on the development of physiology, medicine, psychology and pedagogy.
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was born on September 26, 1849 in Ryazan, into the family of a priest. The father dreamed that his son, like him, would devote himself to the church. At first, Ivan Pavlov’s fate unfolded this way: he began to study at a theological seminary. His years of study coincided with the rapid development of natural science in Russia. Pavlov’s worldview was greatly influenced by the ideas of the great Russian thinkers, revolutionary democrats A. I. Herzen, V. G. Belinsky, N. G. Chernyshevsky, the works of the publicist-educator D. I. Pisarev, and especially the work of the “father of Russian physiology” I. M. Sechenov - "Reflexes of the brain." Fascinated by natural sciences, Pavlov entered St. Petersburg University in 1870. While studying at the natural sciences department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, he worked in the laboratory under the guidance of the famous physiologist I. F. Tsion, where he carried out several scientific studies. And in 1875, the university council awarded him a gold medal for his work"On the nerves that control the work in the pancreas."
After graduating from the university, Ivan Petrovich entered the third year of the Medical-Surgical Academy and at the same time worked in the laboratory of professor of physiology K. N. Ustimovich. While taking the course at the academy, Pavlov carried out a number of experimental works, for the totality of which he was awarded a gold medal. In 1879, Pavlov graduated from the academy and was left with it for further improvement. At the same time, at the invitation of the outstanding surgeon S.P. Botkin, he began working in the physiological laboratory at his clinic. Pavlov worked there for about 10 years, essentially leading all pharmacological and physiological research.
Having defended his dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1883, I.P. Pavlov received the title of private associate professor at the Military Medical Academy. Having worked for 45 years within the walls of this institute, he carried out major research on the physiology of digestion and developed the doctrine of conditioned reflexes.
In 1897, I.P. Pavlov published his famous work, “Lectures on the work of the main digestive glands,” which became a reference guide for physiologists around the world. For this work he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1904.
The works of I.P. Pavlov received recognition from scientists all over the world. During his lifetime, he was awarded honorary titles from numerous domestic and foreign scientific institutions, academies, universities and various societies. And in 1935, at the 15th International Congress of Physiologists, Ivan Petrovich was crowned with the honorary title of “elder of physiologists of the world.” Neither before nor after him, no biologist has received such an honor.
Scientific works of I. P. Pavlov
1. In the field of physiology of the cardiovascular system.
During the first period of scientific activity, Pavlov was mainly engaged in studying the physiology of the cardiovascular system. His dissertation dates back to this time."Centrifugal nerves of the heart", in which the existence of special nerve fibers that strengthen and weaken the activity of the heart of warm-blooded animals was first shown. Based on his research, Pavlov suggested that the amplifying nerve he discovered exerts its effect on the heart by changing the metabolism in the heart muscle. Developing these ideas, Ivan Petrovich later created the doctrine of the trophic function of the nervous system.
Already in his work on the physiology of blood circulation, Pavlov’s high skill and innovative approach to conducting experiments were evident. Having set himself the task of studying the effect of ingesting liquid and dry food on a dog’s blood pressure, he boldly departs from traditional acute experiments on anesthetized animals and is looking for new research techniques. Ivan Petrovich accustoms the dog to experience and, through long training, ensures that without anesthesia it is possible to dissect a thin arterial branch on the dog’s paw and re-register blood pressure for many hours after various influences. The solution to this problem was the origin of the method chronic experience.
2. In the field of digestive physiology
Along with his work in the field of physiology of the cardiovascular system, Pavlov studied some issues of the physiology of digestion. But he began to conduct systematic research in this area only in 1891 in the laboratory of the Institute of Experimental Medicine. The main idea in these works, as well as in studies on blood circulation, was the idea nervousness, borrowed by Pavlov from S.P. Botkin and I.M. Sechenov. However, the study of the regulatory function of the nervous system (in the process of digestion) in a healthy animal could not be carried out with the methodological capabilities available to the physiology of that time.
Pavlov devoted a number of years to the creation of new methods, new techniques in physiology. He developed special operations on the organs of the digestive tract and introduced into practice the method of chronic experimentation, which made it possible to study the activity of the digestive apparatus on a healthy animal. In 1879, Ivan Petrovich, for the first time in the history of physiology, performed an operation, as a result of which he received a permanent pancreatic fistula. He cut out a small section of the intestine around one of its two ducts, and sewed up the holes that formed in the intestine; He sewed the cut piece into the skin wound so that the juice could flow out through the duct. The other gland duct remained in place. Through this duct, the juice continued to flow into the intestine, and normal digestion was not disrupted. After some time, the wound healed, and the scientist began further experiments.
The operation performed by Pavlov was fundamentally different from those that were usually performed to study various parts of the digestive tract. For the first time, it became possible to study the secretion of one of the digestive juices in its pure form on a healthy animal - without food admixture. Dogs with pancreatic fistula lived in the Pavlovsk laboratory for years.
To study the work of the salivary glands, Pavlov, together with his student Glinsky, developed a new method of operations that made it possible to collect pure saliva without food admixture at any time.
Saliva is released into the oral cavity through special excretory ducts. It was necessary to direct it not into the oral cavity, but outward. To do this, Pavlov separated the end of the duct of one of the salivary glands, along with a small piece of the oral mucosa, from neighboring tissues. Then, through a hole made in the wall of the oral cavity, he brought the end of the duct out and attached it to the skin. Just a few days after the operation, the end of the duct, surrounded by the mucous membrane, took root well and made it possible to begin the experiment.
The work of the salivary glands turned out to be very complex and varied. With amazing precision and consistency, the glands respond to various irritations.
But I.P. Pavlov did not limit himself to these experiments and, together with his employee Shumova-Simanovskaya, performed another additional operation on his experimental dog, which already had a gastric fistula: he exposed the upper part of the esophagus, cut it, brought both ends out and strengthened them at the edges wounds.
After the operation, the food that the dog ate fell out through the opening of the cut esophagus. A dog with a gastric fistula and a cut esophagus could swallow the same food for several hours in a row and not get enough of it. With thisimaginary feeding,as the great scientist had expected, completely pure gastric juice was released from the gastric fistula, not mixed with food or saliva. Thus, he was able to prove that the work of the gastric glands is subordinate to the nervous system and is controlled by them. The prepared animal became, as Pavlov put it, an “inexhaustible factory” of gastric juice. It can secrete 300-400, and sometimes up to 700 ml of gastric juice through the fistula every day without harm to its health. There were 10 dogs in the pens. During 6-7 hours of imaginary feeding, they gave several liters of juice, which was used to treat people with certain gastric diseases.
Having conducted an experiment with imaginary feeding - the most outstanding experiment in physiology of the 19th century, Pavlov left far behind his foreign colleagues and even R. Heidenhain himself, whose authority at that time was recognized by everyone in Europe, and to whom Ivan Petrovich himself had recently gone to gain experience . The success of this experiment finally switched him to the study of digestion.
At the time, many of Pavlov's critics insisted that imaginary feeding was not real. It was necessary to find a way to collect pure gastric juice while food is in the stomach.
The German physiologist Heidenhain managed to cut out a small piece of the stomach and make it into a “bag” with a hole sewn to the skin. Thus, the stomach was divided into two parts. One, larger part still received food through the esophagus and then the further, normal process of digestion continued; the other, smaller part was completely separated from the large stomach and did not communicate with it. Such a separate or isolated stomach has only one exit - through an opening in the abdominal wall, through which pure gastric juice is released out. It seemed that the problem was now completely solved: small ventricle will reflect the work of the entire stomach. By collecting juice from a small stomach and studying its composition and properties, you can monitor in detail the work of a large stomach. However, the experiment was not a success. The small ventricle was not working properly. For example, experiments with imaginary feeding were always accompanied by a large secretion of gastric juice, and yet not a single drop was released from the small stomach. Pavlov suggested that nerve fibers were cut during his separation. “This deficiency must be eliminated,” said Pavlov. “And then the small isolated stomach will accurately, like a mirror, reflect the work of the large stomach.”
Together with his assistant Dr. Khizhin, Ivan Petrovich long and persistently developed a new method of operation. And, in the end, after several unsuccessful experiments, he achieved success: the isolated stomach was made so skillfully that not only the blood vessels, but also the nerves were not damaged. The composition of gastric juice in the large and small parts turned out to be the same. Pavlov's theory was completely confirmed in practice. It was a real scientific victory. Now no critic could reproach him for anything. Worldwide fame came to him, and this fame was deserved.
Experiments on dogs with a Pavlovian isolated stomach showed that the gastric glands, as well as the salivary glands, react to the nature of the food entering the stomach and change their work accordingly.
Each experiment began with feeding the animal a certain amount of a particular product, for example, meat, bread or milk. It turned out that the digestive power of juice, i.e. the speed with which it acts on the proteins contained in food, is not the same when feeding different foods. “The gastric glands,” wrote Pavlov, “work with great precision, giving food each time as much as is needed for a given material according to the once established norm.”
3. For the study of higher nervous activity.
I.P. Pavlov is trying to understand the essence of the soul, using the methods of contemporary physiology, i.e. build an objective science of the human spirit. According to his theory, the physiological study of the cerebral hemispheres of animals should form the basis of an accurate scientific analysis of the subjective world of man.
He believes that the science of consciousness should be built on the same principles as the exact sciences - physics, chemistry, physiology, etc.
Objectivity and accuracy mean the strict reproducibility of experimental results and their independence from the positions of the experimenter.
To eliminate inaccuracies, the experimenter strives to extremely simplify his research task and thereby achieve high reproducibility of results. When using such methods, the study was reduced to studying the behavior of an animal or a person in an environment that was extremely “impoverished” in stimuli, and the knowledge obtained in the course of such a study was knowledge about “simple” objects.
All patterns of mental activity can be understood by observing the behavior of the body. I.P. Pavlov writes that the study of any phenomenon should proceed from simple to complex, i.e. the researcher must first divide a complex phenomenon into its components, identify among them the simplest and most accessible for study, and describe the laws by which they exist. Then, based on knowledge of the laws of simple phenomena, the researcher must describe a complex phenomenon that arises as a summation of its simple parts.
In the concept of I.P. Pavlov, the possibility of creating a science of consciousness, built on the same principles as the natural sciences, is justified by the position according to which mental life is subject to the same laws as the phenomena of the material world.
I.P. Pavlov believed that inorganics, life and the psyche are subject to the same laws, which “apply to every simple stone, as well as to the most complex chemical... and to the body”
According to the positions of the Pavlovian school, the whole arises as a result of the action of external stimuli on the body and the body’s adaptation to them, i.e. the whole arises as a reflection of the external world.
I.P. Pavlov believed that an organism “can exist only as long as it is balanced at every moment with the surrounding conditions. As soon as this balancing is seriously disturbed, it ceases to exist as a given system.
Reflexes are elements of this constant adaptation or constant balancing.” In addition, the whole exists due to the fact that all processes in the body are subject to general laws. For I.P. Pavlov is characterized by the idea of a vertical hierarchy of processes in the body: all processes obey the commands of the nervous system, commands are transmitted from top to bottom, the possibility of reverse influence of underlying centers on overlying ones is excluded.
Thus, according to I.P. Pavlov, in the body there is a pyramidal hierarchy of control centers that are subject to general laws.
According to I.P. Pavlov, the researcher can judge the peculiarities of the reflection of the external world in the psyche of animals and humans only by observing the reactions (reflexes) of the body to an external stimulus. His main, initial concept “is the Cartesian concept, the concept of reflex. Of course, it is completely scientific, since the phenomenon it denotes is strictly determined.
This means that one or another receptor nerve device is struck by an agent of the external world or the internal world of the body. This blow is transformed into a nervous process, into a phenomenon of nervous excitation. ...Thus, one or another nervous agent is naturally associated with one or another activity of the body, like cause and effect.”
Reflexes are “naturally and mechanically occurring reactions of the body.” I.P. Pavlov writes that such actions occur fatally and fully correspond to the same reactions of the machine. He believes that the reflection of the external world does not depend on the purposeful activity of the body and is uniquely determined by the state of the body and a set of external stimuli.
For I.P. Pavlova there are pure conditioned and unconditioned reflexes, i.e. such reflexes, the manifestation of which is not interfered with by any other reactions. The entire infinite variety of behavioral reactions of animals and humans is reduced to a limited, albeit very large, number of conditioned reflexes.
In turn, all conditioned reflexes of the body consist of a small number of unconditioned reflexes, and the basis of any unconditioned reflex are two processes - activation and inhibition.
From the point of view of I.P. Pavlov, the possibility of elementary thinking arises as a result of associations of individual reflexes, and the external stimulus that causes reflexes can be a specific sensation or its verbal symbol. Conceptual thinking arises as a result of the combination of particular concepts into a new whole.
The act of reflection itself is a series of interconnected ideas and concepts that exist at a given time in consciousness and are not expressed by any external actions arising from these mental acts. Moreover, a mental act cannot arise in consciousness without external sensory stimulation. Thoughts are just as determined by our sensory experience as any other reflexes.
A special place in the works of I.P. Pavlova is interested in the idea of the so-called second signaling system. According to this idea, in the course of the development of human consciousness, a special attitude towards verbal symbols is formed, i.e. words. In a person, a word acquires the ability to influence his consciousness in the same way as the sensually perceived properties of the object or action about which it signals. The world of verbal symbols becomes independent from the world of sensations.
Thus, for I.P. Pavlov is characterized by ideas about the unity of methods of all natural sciences, about the scientist’s desire to simplify the object of research and the research environment, about sequential (linear) thinking.
According to his theory, the inanimate, the living and the psyche are subject to qualitatively the same laws, the integrity of the organism arises as a result of the reflection of external influences, the body has a pyramidal hierarchy of organ subordination, the reflection of external influences by the senses occurs in a machine-like manner. Human consciousness is a stream of reflexes.
Worldview premises
As such a premise, the idea of the relationship between the law of a thing and the thing itself can be used.
The law will be understood as that general thing that unites all things of the same kind into a certain integrity. Such laws can be thought of as independent entities, thoughts in the head of a researcher, theoretical concepts accepted by the cognitive community, etc.
Essential for the concept of “law” is the idea of the relationship between the law of a phenomenon and a specific phenomenon, or, in other words, the relationship between the general and the particular. IN modern science two diametrically opposed solutions to this problem can be found
The law of a thing is outside the thing, i.e. the general exists in addition to the particular and the law of the phenomenon does not depend on the phenomenon itself.
Based on the concept of I.P. Pavlova lies setting“the law of a thing is outside the thing”. From this attitude follows the thesis about the independence of the laws governing a particular process from the process itself. Moreover, general laws must lie outside of particular laws. Thus, a “pyramid” of laws is formed, at the top of which lie laws that are common to everything. In this case, the whole world is thought of as a reflection unified system laws, which means that all processes are seen as subject to general rules. This implies the thesis about the unity of the inanimate, the living, and the mental, which I.P. defended. Pavlov.
Since the whole world is subject to the same laws, it should be studied using the same methods. This implies the thesis about the fundamental unity of the methods of the exact sciences (i.e. mathematics, physics and chemistry), physiology and psychology. Since each particular process is subject to a general law that lies outside it, all private processes subject to one law are essentially the same. An organism under the same conditions responds to the same influences in the same way. All “discrepancies” in experimental results are the result of inaccuracy in the work of the experimenters - such a methodological installation leads to the desire to “clean” the experiment from external interference and achieve accurate reproduction of the results.
As soon as any event is thought of as a reflection of an external influence, all behavioral reactions are described as a reflection (reflexes). Since the whole world is a “pyramid”, where the lower is subordinate to the higher, the hierarchy of physiological processes is also thought of as a pyramid. Since the cause of a phenomenon lies outside the phenomenon itself, the integrity of the body and consciousness also arises as a result of external influence. The body’s perception of the external world also occurs as a passive reflection and does not depend on the body’s own goals.
Studying the activity of the heart, conducting experiments to study the work of the digestive glands, Ivan Petrovich inevitably encountered the influence of external conditions, the connection of the body with its environment. This led the scientist to research that created a new section in physiology and immortalized his name. Higher nervous activity is what Pavlov began to work on and worked on until the end of his life.
When studying the work of the salivary glands, I.P. Pavlov noticed that a dog secretes saliva not only at the sight of food, but also if it hears the steps of a person carrying it, or when exposed to various other stimuli associated with its intake. Considering the essence of this phenomenon, Ivan Petrovich was able, based on Sechenov’s statements about the reflex nature of all manifestations of brain activity, to understand that the phenomenon of mental secretion makes it possible for a physiologist to objectively study the so-called mental activity.
“After persistently pondering the subject, after a difficult mental struggle, I finally decided,” wrote Pavlov, “even before the so-called mental excitement, to remain in the role of a pure physiologist, that is, an objective external observer and experimenter, dealing exclusively with external phenomena and their relationships." Ivan Petrovich calledunconditioned reflexa constant, innate connection of an external agent with the activity of the body in response to it, while the connection is temporary, formed during life -conditioned reflex. In both cases, this connection is established through the nervous system, and in highly organized animals, conditioned reflexes are formed with the obligatory participation of the cerebral cortex. During the development of conditioned reflexes, connections are made between neurons in different areas of the cortex, which have different functional meanings. As a result, the excitation of cortical cells, previously indifferent to one or another activity of the body, begins to cause excitation of those cortical neurons that relate to this activity. Thus, light stimulation, which usually has nothing to do with food reflexes, can be turned into an agent that causes salivation if this stimulation several times precedes feeding. Thus, new reflex acts are developed - conditioned reflexes to stimuli, which are signals of the upcoming action of the agents.
With the introduction of the method of conditioned reflexes, there was no longer any need to speculate about the internal state of the animal when exposed to various stimuli. All the activities of the body, previously studied only using subjective methods, became available for objective study. The opportunity has opened up to learn experimentally the connection between the body and the external environment. The conditioned reflex itself became, in Pavlov’s words, a “central phenomenon” for physiology, using which it became possible to study both normal and pathological activity of the cerebral hemispheres more fully and accurately. Pavlov first reported on conditioned reflexes at the Fourteenth International Medical Congress in Madrid.
For many years, Ivan Petrovich, together with numerous employees and students, developedthe doctrine of higher nervous activity.Step by step, the subtlest mechanisms of cortical activity were revealed, the relationship between the cerebral cortex and the underlying parts of the nervous system was clarified, and the patterns of the processes of excitation and inhibition in the cortex were studied. It was found that these processes are in close and inextricable connection, capable of widely radiating, concentrating and mutually influencing each other. According to Pavlov, the entire analyzing and synthesizing activity of the cerebral cortex is based on the complex interaction of these two processes. These ideas created a physiological basis for the study of the activity of the senses, which before Pavlov was built mainly on the subjective method of research.
Deep penetration into the dynamics of cortical processes allowed Ivan Petrovich to show that the basis of the phenomena of sleep and hypnosis is the process of internal inhibition, which widely radiated throughout the cerebral cortex and descended into the subcortical formations.
Detailed studies of sleeping people have shown that sleep is a cyclical phenomenon. A typical eight-hour sleep consists of 4-5 cycles, regularly replacing each other. Each cycle includes two phases: the slow-wave sleep phase and the REM sleep phase. Immediately after falling asleep, slow-wave sleep develops. It is characterized by decreased breathing, pulse, and muscle relaxation. After 1-1.5 hours, slow-wave sleep is gradually replaced by fast sleep, which lasts 10-15 minutes. Then a new cycle of slow-wave sleep begins. These observations formed the basis of Pavlov's work on sleep and hypnosis, and served as a means of forming and studying “experimental neuroses.”
The study of conditioned reflexes produced in response to stimulation of receptors of various organs made it possible to study all the functions of the body in their dependence on the activity of the cerebral cortex under a wide variety of living conditions of the body. The study of the formation of conditioned reflexes, which occurs before the eyes of the experimenter, also made it possible to shed new light on the question of the mechanism of reflex activity.
Unconditioned reflexes, although they are innate, however, some constantly repeated and biologically most important conditioned reflexes for a given species can, under certain conditions, be hereditarily fixed and ultimately turn into unconditioned reflexes. When studying conditioned reflexes, it was found that individuals of the same species can differ in the type of nervous system. The type of nervous system, to a certain extent reflecting the properties acquired by inheritance, at the same time develops under the influence of the living conditions of the individual. By raising, for example, different puppies of the same litter in different conditions, researchers observed a change in the type of nervous system. It has been proven that these changes are determined by the influence of environmental factors.
Pavlov considered the main principles of reflex theory to be the principle of determinism, the principle of structure and the principle of analysis and synthesis. Principle determinism establishes the complete dependence of all phenomena in the body, including higher nervous activity, on material causes. The study of the functions of the cerebral cortex allowed Pavlov to know the laws governing conditioned reflex activity so accurately that it became possible to largely control this activity in animals (dogs) and predict in advance what changes will occur under certain conditions. Principle structure establishes that all nervous processes are the result of the activity of certain structural formations - nerve cells, and depend on the properties of these cells. However, if before Pavlov the properties of various cells and cell groups of the central nervous system were considered constant, then Ivan Petrovich in the doctrine of conditioned reflexes showed that the properties of these cells change during development. The localization of functions in the cerebral cortex should not, therefore, be interpreted only as the spatial distribution of cells with different properties. Principleanalysis and synthesisestablishes that in the process of reflex activity, on the one hand, the fragmentation of the surrounding nature into a huge mass of separately perceived phenomena occurs, and on the other, the transformation of simultaneously or sequentially acting stimuli (of a different nature) into complex ones. A rough analysis can be carried out by the lower parts of the nervous system, since stimulation of different receptors, each group of which perceives certain environmental influences, causes only certain unconditioned reflexes. However, the highest analysis, thanks to which the existence of an animal organism in a constantly changing environment is possible, is carried out by the cerebral cortex and is based on the ability to form conditioned reflexes, as well as on the ability to differentiate stimuli.
With the idea of the analytical and synthetic activity of the cerebral cortex, Pavlov imagined the entire cerebral cortex as a set analyzers . Analyzers are integral structural and functional entities, including peripheral – perceptive department (receptors), conductive department (centripetal nerve fibers and all formations of the central nervous system that transmit excitation from receptors to the cerebral cortex.) and cortical section , carrying out the highest analysis and synthesis of all irritations perceived by the body. In this view, the activity of receptors is considered in unity with the activity of the central nervous system. Pavlov distinguished between visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory, skin, motor and internal analyzers. As a result of the activity of analyzers, individual stimuli emanating from the external environment and their complexes can come into contact with any forms of vital activity of the body. All “voluntary” movements are the result of the activity of the motor analyzer, which functions on the basis of innate reflexes caused by irritation of these receptors, as well as reflexes developed in response to irritation of visual, auditory and other receptors. Having collected enormous material characterizing the nervous activity of animals, Pavlov extended the principles of reflex theory to humans.
Studying the qualitative differences in the higher nervous activity of humans in comparison with animals, he put forward the doctrine of two signal systems of reality: the first - common to humans and animals, and the perceptive direct impact, signals from the external environment, and the second - characteristic only of humans, the speech system. Words, according to Pavlov, are like signals of signals. In his ideas about the second signaling system, he considered reactions to words, heard, visible (read) and pronounced, as a result of the development of special conditioned reflexes. These conditioned reflexes of the second signaling system arise when words are pronounced based on stimulation of the receptors of the speech organs - the muscles of the lips, cheeks, and larynx. Impulses caused by irritation of the receptors of the speech organs enter the cortical section of the motor analyzer and connect these irritations with a temporary connection, on the one hand, with irritations of the auditory (and when reading, visual) analyzer, on the other, with irritations produced by the influence of natural phenomena denoted by words , to various receptors in the body. Pavlov emphasized that in these second signals of reality we have a way of connecting a person with the social environment around him, a means of “interhuman signaling.”
Pavlov considered human consciousness in inextricable connection with speech and established that the mechanisms of higher nervous activity, the development and inhibition of conditioned reflexes determine the development of speech. The second signaling system functions on the basis of the first, i.e., on the basis of the impact on the human body of natural phenomena denoted by words. This made it possible to extend the principle of determinism to higher forms of nervous activity specific to humans. Thus, Pavlov’s principle of determinism, which characterizes the entire doctrine of reflexes, received its highest development in ideas about the second signal system, which is the first step in the natural scientific study of the higher aspects of brain activity associated with the phenomena of consciousness.
A characteristic feature of Pavlovian teaching is its connection with practice. Physiology was always presented to Pavlov as a theoretical discipline, which is the basis of all practical medicine. Physiological synthesis, Ivan Petrovich pointed out, coincides with and is identified with medicine, since mastery of the physiological allows one to purposefully influence them. Clarification of the nature of certain pathological conditions under experimental conditions allowed Pavlov to eliminate or mitigate them. Thus, he was the first to achieve long-term preservation of the life of dogs after cutting both vagus nerves, developed ways to combat the consequences of the loss of large quantities of gastric juice, and developed methods for reproducing experimental neuroses and curing them. Being thus (together with Claude Bernard) the founder of experimental therapy, Pavlov at the same time provided exceptionally valuable material for the clinic with his research, which established the normal course of physiological phenomena. All modern methods Treatments for diseases of the digestive tract are based on Pavlov's research. In the treatment of disorders of nervous activity, in particular higher nervous activity, Pavlov's studies on the protective value of inhibition, which form the basis of the so-called sleep therapy, have acquired great importance.
Pavlov's physiological teaching was an outstanding scientific, revolutionary work for that time. Pavlov's teaching interprets all phenomena in the body as constantly changing and developing, all processes are considered by him in their interrelation; the organism is studied as a part of nature, in continuous interaction with the environment. The emergence of qualitatively new phenomena in the body is understood as the result of development, the accumulation of qualitative changes.
Death of a great scientist
Shortly before his death, Ivan Petrovich began to worry that he sometimes forgot the right words and pronounces others, makes some movements involuntarily. The insightful mind of the brilliant researcher flashed for the last time: “Excuse me, but this is the bark, this is the bark, this is swelling of the bark!” - he said excitedly. The autopsy confirmed the correctness of this, alas, last guess of the scientist about the brain - the presence of edema of the cortex of his own powerful brain. By the way, it also turned out that the vessels of Pavlov’s brain were almost not affected by sclerosis.
The death of I.P. Pavlov was a great grief not only Soviet people, throughout all progressive humanity. gone big man and a great scientist who created an entire era in the development of physiological science. The coffin with the scientist’s body was exhibited in the large hall of the Uritsky Palace. Not only Leningraders, but also numerous envoys from other cities of the country came to say goodbye to the illustrious son of Russia. His orphaned students and followers stood as a guard of honor at Pavlov’s tomb. Accompanied by thousands of people, the coffin with Pavlov's body on a gun carriage was delivered to the Volkovskoye cemetery, I. P. Pavlov was buried not far from the grave of the outstanding Russian scientist D. I. Mendeleev.
