The physiological phenomenon of the reflex was discovered by the French philosopher. Psychoanalytic motivational theory

reflex theory.

PHYSIOLOGY

HIGHER NERVOUS ACTIVITY

METHODOLOGICAL MANUAL FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDENTS

Publishing House of the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavonic

University

Bishkek - 2006

PHYSIOLOGY OF HIGHER NERVOUS ACTIVITY: Toolkit\ Comp. O.K. Obidina. - KRSU. - Bishkek, 2006. - 50 p.

Compiled by: Cand. honey. Sci., Associate Professor O.K. Obidina

KRSU, 2006 ᴦ.

Purpose and objectives of the course:

Among the many currently existing branches of knowledge devoted to the study of the behavior and mental activity of living organisms (ethology, comparative and general psychology, psychophysiology, etc.), the science of higher nervous activity (HNA) can be defined as the science of the brain mechanisms of behavior and the psyche, based on reflex theory in its modern form.

Based on this goal this course is the study of the mechanisms of education conditioned reflexes, inhibition in the cerebral cortex, analytical and synthetic activity of the cerebral cortex, types of higher nervous activity, as well as specific features of human GNI.

Course program

Topic 1. General methodology study of higher nervous activity.

I. Reflex theory.

1. The mechanical concept of the reflex (R. Descartes).

2. biological concept reflex (J. Prochazka).

3. The anatomical concept of the reflex (C. Bell, F. Magendie, M. Hall, I. Muller).

4. Psychophysiological concept of the reflex (I.M. Sechenov).

5. The concept of a conditioned reflex (I.P. Pavlov, A.A. Ukhtomsky).

II. Theories of system work of the brain.

1. Development of the problem "brain and psyche" (localizationists, anti-localizationists, the concept of dynamic localization of functions).

2. Functional organization brain (I. A. Pavlov, A. A. Ukhtomsky, A. R. Luria, P. K. Anokhin). Three basic functional blocks of the brain (according to A. R. Luria).

III. The main methods for studying higher nervous activity:

– method of ethological study of behavior;

– methods of conditioned reflex study;

– biochemical;

– method of switching off the studied area of the brain;

- method of stimulation (chemical, electrical) of the cortex and subcortical formations;

– method of pharmacological influence on higher nervous activity;

– method of electroencephalographic studies.

Foundation material.

reflex theory.

The beginning of the study of mental activity dates back to ancient times. The first generalizations concerning the essence of the psyche were found in the works of ancient Greek and Roman scientists (Thales, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Democritus, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Lucretius, Galen). Some scientists of that time speculated about the connection between mental activity and the brain. At the same time, due to underdevelopment experimental sciences in those days and for many centuries afterwards, the study of mental processes took place without any connection with the morphology and physiology of the brain. The basic concepts of psychology (mind, will, memory, feeling, etc.) were formed exclusively speculatively. Only in the Renaissance, the successes of natural science led to the transition to an experimental study of the psyche. Importance to clarify physiological foundations mental activity was discovered by Rene Descartes in the 17th century reflex principle animal behavior. But due to the lack of information about the functions of the nervous system, Descartes represented the physiological mechanism of the reflex act in a crudely mechanistic way. He believed that under the influence of an ʼʼexternal objectʼʼ, ʼʼneural threadsʼʼ are pulled onto the sense organs, going inside the nerve ʼʼʼʼʼ to the brain, and open valves through which streams of small particles (ʼʼanimal spiritsʼʼ) exit the brain cavities into the nerves, rushing to the muscles and inflating them. Τᴀᴋᴎᴍ ᴏϬᴩᴀᴈᴏᴍ, according to Descartes, a motor reaction is carried out in response to external influences. Descartes tried to explain the behavior of animals and simple automatic human actions on the basis of the reflex principle, but he did not consider it possible to extend this principle to higher forms human behavior.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Czech anatomist, physiologist and physician J. Prochazka for the first time came close to a true understanding of the physiological mechanisms of higher nervous activity. It was he who introduced the term ʼʼreflexʼʼ into science and was first given classic description reflex arc. At the same time, J. Prochazka extends the principle of the reflex to the activity of the entire nervous system, incl. and mental activity. At the same time, the views of J. Prochazka were not supported experimental studies and have not received wide distribution and recognition.

The lack of sufficient experimental data on the activity of the brain, which could suggest the existence of more high class reflexes (than reflexes from the level of the spinal cord - C. Bell, F. Magendie), led many scientists to the conclusion that, along with reflex ones, there are other forms of nervous activity that are more complex in terms of the type of determination. So ideas arose, the most striking exponents of which were I. Muller and M. Hall, according to the theory of which the central nervous system was clearly divided into two parts: the spinal and brain. The activity of the former is carried out according to the reflex principle in accordance with the laws of physiology, and the activity of the brain is based, supposedly, on special spontaneous mental forces.

He made the first bold attempt to explain physiological mechanisms higher nervous (mental) activity, the great Russian physiologist I.M. Sechenov (1829-1905). He considered the organism as a whole, in constant interaction with the external environment. All activities of the body are influenced by external environment and is carried out through the nervous system in a reflex way. Reflex is, according to Sechenov, and such a form of manifestation of life as mental activity. In his works (ʼʼReflexes of the brainʼʼ, ʼʼElements of thoughtʼʼ, etc.) I.M. Sechenov tries to give a physiological explanation of the basic concepts of psychology (mind, will, memory, etc.), to explain the process of formation and development of abstract thinking, considering feature of human nervous activity. He binds the abstract, abstract thinking with the development of speech, comes close to the idea of two signal systems that make up distinguishing feature higher nervous activity of man. But also, like previous scientists, I.M. Sechenov could not support his theory experimentally. This was done by I.P. Pavlov.

Before I.P. Pavlov, the concept of ʼʼhigher nervous activityʼʼ did not exist in science in its entirety. The doctrine of I.P. Pavlov about higher nervous activity (HNA) was created on the basis of generalization and further development achievements of natural science in previous periods.

Studying the processes of vital activity of the organism in the conditions of the natural behavior of animals, I.P. Pavlov drew attention to important role mental factors influencing physiological processes. I.P. Pavlov’s observation did not escape the fact that saliva, gastric juice and other digestive juices begin to be secreted from the animal not only at the time of eating, but long before, at the sight of food, the sounds of steps of a servant who usually feeds animals. Appetite, desire, mood, experiencing feelings - all these were mental phenomena that physiologists had not studied before I.P. Pavlov. IP Pavlov drew attention to the fact that appetite, a passionate desire for food is just as powerful a juice-releasing agent as food. He noted that the physiologist has no right to ignore these phenomena, since they powerfully interfere with the course of physiological processes, changing their character.
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For this reason, the physiologist is obliged to study them. But how? Based on his observations, I.P. Pavlov proposed a method of objective study behavioral responses(method of conditioned reflex study), which determined the creation new science – physiology of higher nervous activity with its exact knowledge of the processes occurring in the nervous system under certain influences of the external environment. This science has given a lot for understanding the essence of the mechanisms of human mental activity. The physiology of GNI has become the natural scientific basis of psychology.

I.P. Pavlov formulated the main features of the complete reflex theory in his famous workʼʼAn answer of a physiologist to psychologistsʼʼ (1932). From the whole set of principles on which the reflex theory of GNI was created, he singled out three fundamental principles: the principle of determinism, the principle of structure and the principle of analysis and synthesis.

The first principle is principle of determinism (causality)- says: ʼʼThere is no action without a causeʼʼ. Every activity of the body, every act of nervous activity is caused by a certain cause, an effect from outside world or the internal environment of the body. The expediency of the reaction in this case is determined by the specificity of the stimulus, the sensitivity of the organism to stimuli. result reflex activity is the subordination of external conditions to the needs of the body. Τᴀᴋᴎᴍ ᴏϬᴩᴀᴈᴏᴍ, any activity of the organism, no matter how complex it may seem, is always a causally determined, natural response to specific external influences.

According to the second principle structural principle– there are no processes in the brain that would not have material basis, each physiological nervous activity is timed to a certain brain structure. The structure can act in two forms: permanent and dynamic. Permanent brain structures provide innate reactions of the body (unconditioned reflex activity). Dynamic interactions with the environment include changes in the brain substrate, their structure is able to accumulate, store and reproduce individual experience. This allows the body to navigate both past, present and future activities. Constant formation of new neural connections and provides adjustment to changes in the external environment.

The third principle is principle of analysis and synthesis of stimuli external and internal environment - the brain continuously analyzes and synthesizes both incoming information and the body's responses to them. This is active process adaptation to the surrounding conditions of the existence of the organism, tk. the body removes from the environment useful information, processes, fixes it in memory and forms response actions in accordance with circumstances and needs. Analysis and synthesis are always interconnected, simultaneous and inseparable processes. They are especially difficult to organize in humans due to the appearance verbal thinking and a qualitatively new two-signal structure of the VND.

reflex theory. - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Reflex theory." 2017, 2018.

The biological concept of the reflex.

AT late XVIII in. the philosophy of the French materialists won wide recognition and influenced many scientists in Europe. Teachings of the Czech anatomist and physiologist Jiří Pro-chazka (1749-1820) - important stage in the formation of deterministic ideas about neuropsychic activity.

I. Prochazka expressed the essence of his views on the reflex as follows: external impressions, arising in the sensory nerves, spread very quickly along their entire length to the very beginning. There they are reflected according to a certain law, pass to the motor nerves corresponding to them and are very quickly sent along them to the muscles, through which they produce precise and strictly limited movements.

The term "reflex" was first introduced in scientific language I. Prokhazka. He went one step further in the physiological assertion of the stimulus, for he postulated that the response reflex reaction always manifests itself in size according to the strength of the applied stimulus.

Developing the concept of the reflex nature of behavior, I. Prochazka

"Marx K, Engels F. Works. T. 2. S. 145.

tries to overcome at the beginning the mechanistic, and then the dualism of Cartesianism. common law, according to which sensitive stimuli are switched to motor ones, is the inherent sense of self-preservation in a person. I. Prochazka asserts a monistic idea of the nervous system, which as a whole refers to the composition of the “general sensible”, the bodily part of which is localized in the spinal cord, and the mental part - in the brain. Moreover, all neuropsychic functions are characterized by one general pattern: both parts of the "sensorium" operate according to the law of self-preservation. The abilities necessary for the preservation of the animal and its offspring are mental functions, and the organ serving for this is the brain, the volume and complexity of which corresponds to the degree of perfection of mental functions.

The teachings of I. 11rohazka enriched R. Descartes' idea of the reflex structure of behavior with the concept of biological(rather than mechanical) purpose of the structure of the reflex itself, on the dependence of its complication on the change in the nature of the relationship of living beings with the environment, on its suitability for analysis of all levels conscious activity about the determining influence of feeling.

Anatomical concept of the reflex. A thorough anatomical study of the nervous system was a strong impetus to the development and strengthening of the reflex

thorny concept in the 19th century. The English anatomist and physician C. Bell (1774-1842) wrote in 1811 in his treatise On the New Anatomy of the Brain that it was possible to cut the posterior bundle of nerves emanating from the back of the spinal cord without convulsive contractions of the back muscles. However, this became impossible even with one touch of the tip of the knife to the front spine.

* Thus, the concept of a reflex as a regular motor response to stimulation of sensory nerves was turned into natural scientific fact.

Regardless of C. Bell, the French physiologist F. Magendie (1783-1855) came to similar conclusions. Transition nervous excitement along the afferent nerves through the spinal cord to the efferent nerves is called Bell's law- Magendie.

But C. Bell himself went further: he created theory of "muscle sensitivity" and formulated the physiological rationale cyclic function of the nervous system. There is a closed nerve circle between the brain and the muscle: one nerve transmits the influence of the mouth of the brain to the muscle, the other transmits the feeling of the state of the muscle to the brain. If the circle is opened by transection of the motor nerve, then the movement will disappear. If it is opened by transection of the sensory nerve, the feeling of the muscle itself disappears, and at the same time

the regulation of its activity also disappears. So, for example, a woman lost sensitivity on one arm, and the ability to move on the other. This woman could hold the child on her hand, which had lost only sensation, as long as she looked at him. As soon as she took her eyes off the child, there was immediately a danger of him falling to the floor.

f Thus, if earlier only external stimuli were considered determinants of the reflex act, then C. Bell shows the value internal sensitivity themselves muscle, which provides the most accurate and subtle execution of the movement.

Spinal cord reflexes have been widely used by clinicians, among whom the most significant figure was English doctor Marshal Hall and German physiologist Johannes Müller. It is M. Hall who owns the term "reflex arc", consisting of 1) afferent nerve; 2) spinal cord and 3) efferent nerve.

M. Hall and I. Muller insisted on the fundamental differences work of the spinal cord from the brain. In their opinion, the reflex mechanism is characteristic only spinal cord, reflexes can only be called such acts, the nature of which is apsychic. The patterns of the course of any reflex act were determined by the connections of nerve substrates initially laid down in the body, while the external stimulus was assigned the role of only a trigger. Internal factors were opposed to external ones. The brain found itself further and further away from the sphere of influence of physiology. The distance between physiology and psychology became more and more palpable.

* At the same time, one cannot fail to see the progressive tendencies of the ideas of C. Bell, F. Magendie, M. Hall, and I. Müller. These scientists undertook attempts to reveal the intraorganic conditions for the flow of the simplest reflex response, strove for its analytical knowledge as an elementary unit of nervous activity, fought

vs subjectively psychological explanations reflex structures. The rigid anatomical nature of these theories is already mid-nineteenth in. met with serious controversy, which arose in connection with the increasing spread of evolutionary ideas, most consistently embodied by Ch. Darwin.

Psychophysiological concept of reflex. Evolutionary ideas met in Russia the most fertile soil prepared philosophy Russian revolutionary democrats, who had significant influence on the formation of the worldview of I. M. Sechenov (1829-1905). The very concept of the reflex nature of nervous activity in I. M. Sechenov has undergone significant changes.

Let us consider the following main features of Sechenov's theory of the reflex (Yaroshevsky, 1961).

1. Reflex they understood as a universal and peculiar form of interaction between an organism and its environment, based on evolutionary biology. IM Sechenov raised the question of the existence of two kinds of reflexes. First of all, permanent, congenital, carried out by the lower parts of the nervous system. He called them "pure" reflexes. Secondly, the reflexes of the brain changeable, acquired in individual life.

I. M. Sechenov imagined these reflexes simultaneously both physiological and psychic.

Thus, the inseparability of mental processes from the brain and, at the same time, the conditionality of the psyche by the external world was shown for the first time. The most important for I. M. Sechenov was the position on the unity of the organism and the conditions of the external environment. The factors of evolution 1) define life as an adaptation of organisms to the conditions of existence and 2) prove that the introduction of influence is capable of modifying the material organization and nature of life functions.

I. M. Sechenov was an outstanding propagandist of the Darwinian doctrine in Russia, he introduced evolutionary biological approach to brain physiology and introduced the concept of variability and transformation of reflexes in order to successfully adapt, complicate and develop. Thus, a materialistic platform was created for linking nervous acts with psychic ones.

2. Physiological substrate of reflex acts characterized as neurodynamics. different from the dynamics of other systems. Opening central braking I. M. Sechenov in 1862 was the first step towards the creation of a new physiology of the brain. The activity of the nerve centers is now conceived as continuous dynamics of excitation and inhibition processes.

3. Put to the fore intercentral coordination relationships. The higher brain centers begin to undergo physiological analysis. If before I. M. Sechenov, the strengthening or suppression of reflex reactions was interpreted only as an effort of will, consciousness, reason, then I. M. Sechenov translates all this into a strict physiological language and shows how the centers of the brain can delay or increase spinal reflexes.

4. The Function of Think Tanks interpreted broadly. biological adaptation. The centers influence the movements in an intensifying or inhibitory way, not because they are released

the "psychic power" inherent in them, and not because the path of passage is shortened or lengthened nerve impulse. I. M. Sechenov introduces the concept of “ physiological state center”, which is directly related to biological needs. The very state of the center, reflecting the nature of relations with the environment, is nervous substratum of need.

F An essential addition is made to the doctrine of reflexes. The reaction becomes direct dependence not only from the irritations at hand, but also from the whole amounts previous influences that left long-lasting traces in the nerve centers.

5. Muscle sensitivity opens up new perspectives for deterministic analysis of behavior. I. M. Sechenov believes that a muscular feeling during the performance of one movement becomes, in the order of association of reflexes, a signal for another movement. The principle of association of reflexes forms the basis of human learning complex forms labor activity. A common character is established for movements and for mental activity - this is the presence of muscle sensitivity.

On the question of the relationship between the physiological and the mental, I. M. Sechenov took a completely definite position, which he expressed following words: “For us, as for physiologists, it is enough that the brain is an organ of the soul, that is, such a living mechanism that, being set in motion by whatever reasons, gives in the final result the same series of external phenomena that mental activity is characterized” 1 .

Not without reason, many believe that it was I. M. Sechenov who had in mind V. I. Lenin, citing as an example scientific way thinking of a "scientific psychologist", who "... rejected philosophical theories about the soul and directly took up the study of the material sub-

1 Cross section THEM. Selected philosophical and psychological works. M. L., 1974. S. 112.

stratum of mental phenomena - nervous processes" 1 .

F For all the persuasiveness of the arguments of I. M. Sechenov, which he used to assert his views on behavior and the psyche, he lacked the most important argument - laboratory objective method research. Rising to the extension of the reflex principle to mental activity and considering the reflex as a psychophysiological phenomenon, I. M. Sechenov could not study the specific mechanisms of behavior due to the lack of an appropriate method. Therefore, a number of his statements remained only brilliant conjectures, a wave of his mighty thought.

The concept of a conditioned reflex. An extremely responsible mission fell to the share of I. P. Pavlov - he reinforced the brilliant guesses, foresights and thoughts of I. M. Sechenov scientific concept conditioned reflex. IP Pavlov mobilized all his skill as a talented experimenter so that his concept was introduced into the strict framework of a laboratory experiment.

IP Pavlov understood that he, following Sechenov, was invading the realm of phenomena usually referred to as psychic. “All complex nervous activity,” writes I. P. Pavlov already in 1913, “which was previously interpreted as mental activity, appears to us in the form of two main mechanisms: the mechanism for the formation of a temporary connection between agents of the external world and the activities of the body, or the mechanism of conditional reflex, as we usually say, and the mechanism of analyzers, i.e., such instruments that have as their goal to analyze the complexity of the external world: to decompose it into separate elements and moments. At least until now, all the material we have obtained fits into this framework. But this, of course, does not exclude the possibility of expanding

1 Lenin V.I. Sobr. op. M. L., 1960. T. 1. S. 142.

our current understanding of the matter” 1 .

IP Pavlov showed himself as a consistent materialist and determinist. No wonder IP Pavlov proclaimed that the study of conditioned reflexes is based on three principles of the reflex theory: determinism, analysis and synthesis, structure. I. P. Pavlov fully adhered to the reflex scheme of R. Descartes and understood the meaning of the reflex as one of the examples universal principle determination. Already at the dawn of the development of the Pavlovian teaching, it became clear that the conditioned reflex is a pattern of a higher and complex order than simple reflexes. The conditioned reflex ensures the variability of the adaptive behavior of the animal in relation to the outside world. The conditioned reflex is the most important factor biological evolution. However, IP Pavlov, being intoxicated with polemics with psychologists and sharing Cartesian determinism, began to study in depth the physiological laws of conditioned reflex activity, but left the biological side of the phenomenon for the future. Hence the inevitable contradictions in the idea of a conditioned reflex: on the one hand, an adaptive act of the whole organism, on the other, elementary process work

1 Pavlov I.P. Sobr. op. M. L., 1952.

nervous system. All scientific work of IP Pavlov was devoted to resolving this contradiction and creating the least controversial ideology in his theory of higher nervous activity.

Further, we will repeatedly consider individual provisions of the Pavlovian theory, and here we will restrict ourselves to only its most important elements in relation to the theory of reflex, which were noted by P. K. Anokhin (1979).

1. First of all was created laboratory method objective study of the adaptive activity of humans and animals - conditional reflex method.

2. Studying conditioned reflexes on whole body, And, P. Pavlov emphasized them adaptive-evolutionary meaning for the animal world.

3. I. P. Pavlov made an attempt to localize the nervous process of the closure of nerve connections in the cerebral cortex in higher animals and humans. At the same time, he was not categorical and did not exclude the specific participation of other parts of the brain in this process. He wrote that all our laws are always more or less conditional and have meaning only for a given time, under the conditions of a given methodology, within the limits of the available material.

4. I. P. Pavlov stated the presence in the cerebral cortex braking process, which reinforced Sechenov's ideas about the inhibitory effect of the brain.

5. Was clearly articulated the doctrine of the physiology of analyzers, under which I. P. Pavlov, following I. M. Sechenov, thought of a triune construction: peripheral receptors, pathways and brain centers up to the cerebral cortex.

6. The phenomena of the dynamics of the processes of excitation and inhibition during conditioned reflex activity were described. As a result, a representation was formed about the cerebral cortex as a mosaic of excitations and inhibitions.

7. At the end of his creative life

I. P. Pavlov put forward principle of consistency in the work of the cerebral cortex, which is capable of forming a dynamic stereotype of activity, already to some extent independent of the quality of external stimuli.

The ideas of I. P. Pavlov conquered the whole world and continue to serve as the basis for the development of new scientific research in the most diverse areas of the science of the behavior of living organisms.

Dialectical concept of reflex. A. A. Ukhtomsky (1875-1942) deserves the merit of the theoretical and physiological plan, consisting in the further development of the principle of determinism in the reflex theory.

The dialectical thinking of A. A. Ukhtomsky found a vivid manifestation in his understanding of the essence of the reflex. Seeing the mechanism of activity in the reflex, he saw in the reflex act unity of internal and external determinants, moreover, the internal determinants, ultimately, are also given and determined external conditions. A. A. Ukhtomsky emphasized that “... a reflex is such a reaction that is motivated quite clearly by the current situation or environment. This, however, does not destroy the spontaneous action of the substrate, it only puts it within certain limits in its opposition to environmental factors, and from this it becomes more definite in content and meaning. The reflex is drawn not by a purely passive movement of the bone ball under the influence of a blow received by it from the outside; in this way the reflex could be depicted as long as it was necessary to emphasize in particular its motivation from the environment. But in its fullness, it appears as a meeting in time of two conditions: on the one hand, the activity prepared or formed in the substrate (cell) itself during its previous history, and, on the other hand, the external impulses of the current moment.

^ Ukhtomsky A. A. Sobr. op. Publishing House of Leningrad State University, 1954. T. V. S. 72.

Hence,

internal determinants are the accumulated history of the interaction of the reacting substrate with the environmental factor (principle of historicism).

Both by origin and by the conditions of manifestation, internal determinants are ultimately determined by environmental factors, i.e., they have only relative independence. The external acts as a complex of conditions for the existence of the internal. This means that the environment of an organism is not all of its surroundings. physical world, but only that small part of it, the elements of which are biologically significant for the organism. But for the body is biological interest only this external, which may become part of life experience i.e. part of the inner or contribute transformation certain external factors into internal ones.

Modern reflex theory has gone far from simple Cartesian schemes. The introduction of the principle of historicism into the reflex theory makes it possible to understand biological adequacy, that is, the expediency of the organism's reactions to the influence of the environment. The Cartesian worldview is based on rigid, unambiguous causality (Laplace's rigid determinism); it is alien to the recognition of real contradictions. A. A. Ukhtomsky, on the other hand, shows that real behavior requires the recognition of the existence contradictions as a continuous attribute of the development process, as driving forces building behavior.

f Historical approach allowed A. A. Ukhtomsky to reveal the real role and evaluate the significance of the conditioned reflex in the evolution of the animal world, and also to reveal one of the cardinal properties of the conditioned stimulus, its transformation from indifferent into an "obligatory" component of the environment. Such a learned stimulus begins to cause a new reaction for itself. As a result of such assimilation, the body determined and fixed its attitude to this stimulus - determined its biological significance for itself.

Considering the system of reflexes in the evolutionary series, A. A. Ukhtomsky writes: “... a simple reflex of classical physiology is not initial and fundamentally common type reflex activity of the centers, over which a special area of conditioned reflexes specializes, but vice versa, a particular special and late product of the reduction and simplification of the conditioned reflex, which from now on becomes the general type of activity of the central nervous apparatus.

f Individual adaptation of an individual with the help of conditioned reflexes serves as a kind of compass - a guideline for solving problems of the species. Natural selection reinforces those mutational acquisitions that correspond to the findings of the individual. Thus, individual adaptation goes ahead of evolutionary-genetic rearrangements. The principles of historicism and the correlation of reactivity and activity in holistic behavior as a way of resolving contradictions, introduced into physiology by A. A. Ukhtomsky, significantly enriched the reflex theory, which finally got rid of the dualism and mechanism of the Cartesian persuasion, standing on firm dialectical positions.

Ukhtomsky A. A. Sobr. op. Publishing house of Leningrad State University, 1954. T. V. S. 291.

§ 3. Reflex theory of the psyche

The concept of a reflex (in Latin - reflection) was introduced into science by the French scientist Rene Descartes. But his views, at that time, were still naive and contradictory. At the beginning of the last century, physiology had sufficiently studied spinal reflexes. The merit of creating a reflex theory of the psyche belongs to I.M. Sechenov and I.P. Pavlov. So, I.M. Sechenov in his book "Reflexes of the brain" (1863) showed that all acts of conscious and unconscious life according to their mode of origin, they are reflexes*. He singled out three links in reflexes:

the initial link is external irritation and its transformation by the sense organs into the process of nervous excitation transmitted to the brain;

the middle link - the central processes in the brain (processes of excitation and inhibition) and the emergence on this basis of mental states (sensations, thoughts, feelings, etc.);

the final link is the external movement.

* Sechenov I.M. Selected philosophical and psychological works. M., 1947, p. 176.

According to Sechenov, the reflexes of the brain begin with sensual excitation, continue with a certain mental act and end with a muscular movement *, since the middle link cannot be isolated from the first and third, and also since all mental phenomena are an inseparable part of the entire reflex process, which has a cause in influences external to the brain of the real world.

_____________________________________________________________________________

* Sechenov I.M. Selected philosophical and psychological works. M., 1947, p. 111.

This was the first and quite successful attempt to create a reflex theory of the psyche. However, the honor of the deep experimental development of the reflex theory of the psyche belongs to I.P. Pavlov, who created a new field of science - the doctrine of higher nervous activity. Higher nervous activity is a concept that generalizes both the psychology and biology of higher nervous activity, which by no means means the identity of the latter. The basis of higher nervous activity is a conditioned reflex, which is both physiological and psychological phenomena. Here is how I.P. Pavlov, in his article "The Conditioned Reflex", written in 1934, presented his classic experience:

“...Let's make two simple experiments that everyone will succeed. Pour a moderate solution of some acid into the dog's mouth. It will evoke the usual defensive reaction of the animal: with vigorous movements of the mouth, the solution will be thrown out, out, and at the same time, saliva will flow abundantly into the mouth (and then out), diluting the injected acid and washing it off from the oral mucosa. Now another experience. Several times, with any external agent, for example, a certain sound, we will act on the dog just before introducing the same solution into its mouth. And what? It will be enough to repeat just one sound - and the dog will reproduce the same reaction: the same movements of the mouth and the same flow of saliva. Both of these facts are equally precise and constant. And both of them should be designated by the same physiological term "reflex" ...

It is legitimate to call the constant connection of an external agent with the activity of the organism in response to it an unconditioned reflex, and the temporary connection - a conditioned reflex ... Temporary neural connection is the most universal physiological phenomenon in the animal world and in ourselves. And at the same time, it is also mental - what psychologists call an association, will this formation of connections from all kinds of actions, impressions, or from letters, words and thoughts.

_____________________________________________________________________________

* Pavlov I.P. Full coll. op. T. 3, book. 2, p. 322-325.

It is now clear that mental functions are carried out by conditioned reflexes that make up the higher nervous activity, and its simpler functions are carried out by unconditioned reflexes that make up the lower nervous activity. The reflex described above in a dog (sound - salivation) is a conditioned reflex of the first order. But the significance of conditioned reflex activity is increased by the possibility of the formation of so-called reflexes of a higher (second, third, etc.) order, it turns out that if the first conditioned reflex is strong enough, then under certain circumstances after some time it can also become a conditioned stimulus. The connection "call - salivation" in this case will be a reflex of the second order. There are more complex reflexes. A second-order reflex can be formed only on the basis of a sufficiently strong first-order reflex. In the beginning, any newly formed reflex is not strong and is easily disturbed. Any external stimulus, for example, the same call, given together with or immediately after the light, causes the cessation of saliva flow - it inhibits the reflex. Such inhibition of the reflex under the influence of another stimulus I.P. Pavlov called external inhibition.

If in experiments with a dog that already has a developed “light - salivation” reflex, the light bulb is turned on many times in a row without feeding, then less and less saliva will be released, and finally the reflex will completely die out. This is the result of internal extinctive inhibition. Fading inhibition occurs, for example, in the process of fading skills in shooting weapons in the absence of exercise. A peculiar form of external inhibition is extreme braking caused by excessive force of the conditioned stimulus. For example, if, in an experiment with a dog that has a reflex to light a light bulb, a very bright light is given, then salivation may not only decrease, but even disappear altogether. With such transcendent inhibition, excitation in certain centers is so enhanced that it turns into its opposite - inhibition.

For a person, the strength of the stimulus is determined not only by its physical characteristics (brightness, loudness, etc.), but also by its individual significance for this particular person. In this regard, transcendental braking plays a large and very difficult role in the field of emotions, and in particular in the manifestation of tension. Sometimes the “reprimanding” of a subordinate employee does not have a pedagogical effect precisely because it causes prohibitive inhibition in him.

It has been proved that the formation of inhibition of conditioned reflexes is complicated by the process of induction. The nervous process of excitation formed in any part of the cerebral cortex spreads, radiates to neighboring areas. But when some part of the cerebral cortex enters a state of excitation, then in other parts of it, due to negative induction, a process of inhibition occurs. On the contrary, a region of excitation arises around the inhibited region due to positive induction. Due to successive induction, the cessation of excitation in any part of the cerebral cortex leads to its temporary inhibition, and the cessation of inhibition, respectively, to its increased excitability.

Irradiation, concentration and mutual induction of nervous processes form that change of excitation and inhibition, which I.P. Pavlov called the functional mosaic of the cerebral cortex or cortical neurodynamics. The system of conditioned reflexes, connected into one whole and manifested as a result of one trigger signal, I.P. Pavlov called it a dynamic stereotype, which is a physiological mechanism of skills and habits. A person who finds himself in new conditions has to break his previously formed stereotype and create a new one. This is a process that sometimes requires a lot of nervous work, which cannot be forgotten as a legal worker.

At the end of his life, I.P. Pavlov laid the foundation for the doctrine of the second signaling system reality. So, observing the rational behavior higher apes, I.P. Pavlov came to the conclusion that in addition to unconditioned and conditioned reflexes, there is a third type of them, which he called the causal reflex. When a monkey builds a tower to get a fruit, it cannot be called a "conditioned reflex," he said. This is a case of the formation of knowledge, catching normal communication of things. This is another case. Thus, the creator of the doctrine of conditioned reflexes further deepened the reflex theory of the psyche.

_____________________________________________________________________________

*Pavlovian environments. T. 3, p. 262.

The most creatively developed the idea of his teacher P.K. Anokhin, who for the first time in our country began to develop the idea feedback, proving at the same time that the reflex arc is a reflex ring that closes a series of reflections into a spiral.

The doctrine of higher nervous activity, of the development of the psyche is the natural scientific basis of all psychological sciences, including legal psychology.

Every biology textbook says that the founder of the reflex theory is Ivan Pavlov. This is true, but even before the famous Russian physiologist, many researchers studied the nervous system. Of these, Pavlov's teacher Ivan Sechenov made the greatest contribution.

Background of the reflex theory

The term "reflex" means a stereotyped reaction of a living organism to an external stimulus. Surprisingly, but this concept has mathematical roots. The term was introduced into science by the physicist Rene Descartes, who lived in the 17th century. He tried to explain with the help of mathematics the laws by which the world of living organisms exists.

Rene Descartes is not the founder of the reflex theory in its modern form. But he discovered much of what later became part of it. Descartes was helped by William Harvey, an English physician who was the first to describe the circulatory system in the human body. However, he also presented it in the form mechanical system. Later this method will be used by Descartes. If Harvey transferred his principle to internal organization organism, then his French colleague applied this construction to the interaction of the organism with the outside world. He described his theory using the term "reflex", taken from the Latin language.

The importance of Descartes' discoveries

The physicist believed that the human brain is the center responsible for communication with the outside world. In addition, he suggested that they come from him nerve fibers. When external factors affect the ends of these threads, the signal enters the brain. It was Descartes who became the founder of the principle of materialistic determinism in the reflex theory. This principle lies in the fact that any nervous process occurring in the brain is caused by the action of a stimulus.

Much later, the Russian physiologist Ivan Sechenov (the founder of the reflex theory) rightly called Descartes one of those scientists on whom he relied in his research. At the same time, the French had many delusions. For example, he believed that animals, unlike humans, act mechanically. The experiments of another Russian scientist - Ivan Pavlov - showed that this is not so. The nervous system of animals has the same structure as that of humans.

Ivan Sechenov

Another person who made an important contribution to the development of the reflex theory is Ivan Sechenov (1829-1905). He was an educator and creator of Russian physiology. Scientist first in world science suggested that the higher parts of the brain work only on reflexes. Before him, neurologists and physiologists did not raise the question that, perhaps, all mental processes human body are of a physiological nature.

During research in France, Sechenov proved that the brain affects motor activity. He discovered the phenomenon of central inhibition. His research made a splash in the then physiology.

Formation of the reflex theory

In 1863, Ivan Sechenov published the book "Reflexes of the Brain", which removes the question of who is the founder of the reflex theory. In this work, many ideas were formulated that formed the basis modern teaching about the higher nervous system. In particular, Sechenov explained to the public what the reflex principle of regulation is. It lies in the fact that any conscious and unconscious activity of living organisms is reduced to a reaction within the nervous system.

Sechenov not only discovered new facts, but also did a great job of generalizing already known information about physiological processes within the body. He proved that the influence of the external environment is necessary both for the usual pulling of the hand, and for the appearance of a thought or feeling.

Criticism of Sechenov's ideas in Russia

Society (especially Russian) did not immediately accept the theory of a brilliant physiologist. After the book "Reflexes of the Brain" was published, some of the scientist's articles were no longer published in Sovremennik. Sechenov boldly attacked the theological ideas of the Church. He was a materialist and tried to prove everything in terms of physiological processes.

Despite the ambiguous assessment in Russia, the foundations of the theory of reflex activity were warmly received. scientific community Old World. Sechenov's books began to be published in Europe in gigantic editions. The scientist even moved his main research activities to Western laboratories for some time. He worked productively with a French physician

Receptor theory

In the history of science, one can find many examples of how scientists went down the wrong path, offering ideas that did not correspond to reality. The receptor theory of sensations, which contradicts the views of Sechenov and Pavlov, can be called such a case. What is their difference? The receptor and reflex theory of sensations explain the nature of the body's reaction to external stimuli in different ways.

Both Sechenov and Pavlov believed that the reflex is an active process. This point of view was established in modern science and today it is considered definitively proven. The activity of the reflex lies in the fact that living organisms react more sharply to some stimuli than to others. Nature separates the necessary from the unnecessary. The receptor theory, on the contrary, states that the sense organs react passively to the environment.

Ivan Pavlov

Ivan Pavlov is the founder of the reflex theory along with Ivan Sechenov. He studied the nervous system all his life and developed the ideas of his predecessor. This phenomenon attracted the scientist with its complexity. The principles of the reflex theory have been proven by a physiologist empirically. Even people far from biology and medicine have heard the phrase "Pavlov's dog." Of course, we are not talking about one animal. This refers to the hundreds of dogs that Pavlov used for his experiments.

The impetus for the discovery and final formation of the entire reflex theory was a simple observation. Pavlov had been studying the digestive system for ten years and had many dogs in his laboratory, whom he loved very much. One day, a scientist wondered why an animal would salivate even before it was given food. Further observations showed amazing connection. Saliva began to flow when the dog heard the clink of dishes or the voice of the person who brought her food. Such a signal triggered a mechanism that causes the production of gastric juice.

Unconditioned and conditioned reflexes

The above case interested Pavlov, and he began a series of experiments. What conclusions did the founder of the reflex theory come to then? As far back as the 17th century, Descartes spoke about the body's reactions to external stimuli. The Russian physiologist took this concept as a basis. In addition, Sechenov's reflex theory helped him. Pavlov was his direct student.

Watching dogs, the scientist came to the idea of unconditioned and conditioned reflexes. The first group included congenital features of the organism, transmitted by inheritance. For example, swallowing, sucking, etc. Pavlov called conditioned reflexes those that a living being receives after birth due to personal experience and characteristics environment.

These qualities are not inherited - they are strictly individual. At the same time, the body may lose such a reflex if, for example, environmental conditions have changed, and it is no longer needed. by the most famous example is Pavlov's experiment with one of the laboratory dogs. The animal was taught that food is brought after the light bulb turns on in the room. Next, the physiologist monitored the appearance of new reflexes. And indeed, soon the dog began to salivate by itself when he saw the light bulb turned on. However, she was not given any food.

Three Principles of Theory

The generally accepted principles of the reflex boil down to three rules. What are they? The first of them is the principle of materialistic determinism, formulated by Descartes. According to him, every nervous process is caused by the action external stimulus. The reflex theory of mental processes is based on this rule.

The second is the principle of structure. This rule states that the structure of the parts of the nervous system directly depends on the quantity and quality of their functions. In practice, it looks like this. If an organism does not have a brain, then it is characterized by primitiveness.

The last principle is the principle of analysis and synthesis. It lies in the fact that inhibition occurs in some neurons, while excitation occurs in others. This process is a physiological analysis. As a result, a living organism can distinguish between surrounding objects and phenomena.

At the heart of the system scientific knowledge lies the principle of determinism, which makes it possible to reveal a regular causal relationship of phenomena, determined by the interaction of material factors. The modern materialistic science of higher nervous activity is based on three theories united by the principle of determinism: the reflex theory, the theory of reflection, and the theory of systemic activity of the brain.

Mmechanical concept of the reflex. The concept of reflex arose in the 17th century. in the teachings of R. Descartes (1596-1650) about the mechanical picture of the world. R. Descartes lived in the heyday of mechanics, physics and mathematics. His worldview was influenced by the discovery by W. Harvey of the mechanism of blood circulation and the innovative ideas of A. Vesalius that the carriers of the psyche are "animal spirits" that are produced in the ventricles of the brain and transmitted through the nerves to the corresponding organs. R. Descartes represented nervous processes on the model of the circulatory system, using the principles of optics and mechanics that existed at that time.

Under refletocatfish R. Descartes understood motion« animal dooXov» abouttbrain to myishcham according to the type of reflection of the light beam. According to his scheme, external objects act on the peripheral endings of the nerve "threads" located inside the "neural tubes", which, stretching, open the valves of the openings leading from the brain to the nerves. Through the channels of these nerves, "animal spirits" move to the corresponding muscles, which as a result swell, and thus movement occurs. The cause of the motor act is determined by material changes on the skin periphery of the body, and the nervous process is similar to the movement of blood through the vessels. R. Descartes can rightfully be considered the founder of deterministic psychophysiology. Important in the work of R. Descartes is the development concept of stimulus necessary to operate the mechanisms of the human body.

Based on the reflex principle, R. Descartes also tries to explain the learning behavior of behavior: people, even with a weak soul, could acquire unlimited power over all their passions if they made enough effort to discipline them.

feast and lead them. Descartes' desire to understand holistic behavior was especially clear in his studynand about passions. Sadness and joy are the factors that form the expedient attitude of the organism to the outside world, make the reaction coordinated and complex. In passions, the connection of the soul with the body is manifested.

f Main theoretical positions R. Descartes, used by modern physiology, are reduced to the following: the organ of sensations, emotions and thoughts is the brain; the muscular response is generated by processes in the nerve adjacent to the muscle; sensation is due to changes in the nerve that connects the sense organ with the brain; movement in the sensory nerves is reflected in the motor ones, and this is possible without the participation of the will (reflex act); movements caused by the sensory nerve in the substance of the brain create a readiness to again produce the same movement (learning ability).

However, being under the influence of the socio-historical contradictions of his era, R. Descartes made serious concessions to idealism: he considered human consciousness as a substantial principle capable of influencing subordinate reflex laws of bodily processes. Thus, the body and soul are independent substances. The dualism of R. Descartes, his interpretation of consciousness prevented consistent determinism, because he allowed acts of imagination, thinking, will that came from an immaterial substance. Behavior and consciousness were divorced, turned into two independent series of phenomena.

In assessing the general scientific significance of the ideas of R. Descartes, however, it is important to emphasize not so much the mechanism as the materialistic essence of the doctrine of behavior, not so much dualism in the understanding of mental activity, but the first attempt at its deterministic understanding, «... Cartesian materialism, - noted K. Marx, -

merges into natural science in the proper sense of the word» 1 .

The biological concept of the reflex.

At the end of the XVIII century. the philosophy of the French materialists won wide recognition and influenced many scientists in Europe. The teachings of the Czech anatomist and physiologist Jiří Prochazka (1749-1820) are an important stage in the formation of deterministic ideas about neuropsychic activity.

I. Prochazka expressed the essence of his views on the reflex as follows: external impressions that arise in sensory nerves spread very quickly along their entire length to the very beginning. There they are reflected according to a certain law, pass to the motor nerves corresponding to them and are very quickly sent along them to the muscles, through which they produce precise and strictly limited movements.

For the first time the term "reflex" was introduced into the scientific language by I. Prochazka. He went one step further in the physiological assertion of the stimulus, for he postulated that the response reflex reaction always manifests itself in size according to the strength of the applied stimulus.

Developing the concept of the reflex nature of behavior, I. Prochazka

"Marx To, EnGEls F. Works. T. 2. S. 145.

tries to overcome at the beginning the mechanistic, and then the dualism of Cartesianism. The general law by which sensory stimuli switch to motor stimuli is the inherent sense of self-preservation in man. I. Prochazka asserts a monistic idea of the nervous system, which as a whole refers to the composition of the “general sensible”, the bodily part of which is localized in the spinal cord, and the mental part - in the brain. Moreover, all neuropsychic functions are characterized by one general regularity: both parts of the "sensorium" operate according to the law of self-preservation. The abilities necessary for the preservation of the animal and its offspring are mental functions, and the organ serving for this is the brain, the volume and complexity of which corresponds to the degree of perfection of mental functions.

The teachings of I. 11rohazka enriched R. Descartes' idea of the reflex structure of behavior with the concept of biologistsheskom(and not mechanical) purpose of the structure of the reflex itself, about the dependence of its complication on the change in the nature of the relationship of living beings with the environment, about its suitability for the analysis of all levels of conscious activity, about the determining influence of feeling.

Anatomical concept of the reflex. A thorough anatomical study of the nervous system was a strong impetus to the development and strengthening of the reflex

* Thus, the concept of a reflex as a regular motor response to stimulation of sensory nerves was turned into natural-nascientific fact.

Regardless of C. Bell, the French physiologist F. Magendie (1783-1855) came to similar conclusions. The transition of nervous excitation along the afferent nerves through the spinal cord to the efferent nerves is called Bell's law- Magendie.

Spinal cord reflexes were widely used by clinicians, among whom the most significant figure was the English physician Marshall Hall and the German physiologist Johannes Müller. It is M. Hall who owns the term "reflex arc", consisting of 1) afferent nerve; 2) spinal cord and 3) efferent nerve.

M. Hall and I. Muller insisted on the fundamental differences work of the spinal cord from the brain. In their opinion, the reflex mechanism is peculiar only to the spinal cord, only such acts, the nature of which is apsychic, can be called reflexes. The patterns of the course of any reflex act were determined by the connections of nerve substrates initially laid down in the body, while the external stimulus was assigned the role of only a trigger. Internal factors were opposed to external ones. The brain found itself further and further away from the sphere of influence of physiology. The distance between physiology and psychology became more and more palpable.

against subjective psychological explanations of the structure of the reflex. The rigid anatomical nature of these theories already in the middle of the 19th century. met with serious contradictions that arose in connection with the ever-widening spread of evolutionary ideas, most consistently embodied by Charles Darwin.

Psychophysiological concept of reflex. Evolutionary ideas found the most favorable ground in Russia, prepared by the philosophical teachings of Russian revolutionary democrats, who had a significant influence on the formation of the worldview of I. M. Sechenov (1829-1905). The very concept of the reflex nature of nervous activity in I. M. Sechenov has undergone significant changes.

Let us consider the following main features of Sechenov's theory of the reflex (Yaroshevsky, 1961).

1. Reflex they understood as universal and peculiar form of interaction of the organism with the environment, based on evolutionary biology. IM Sechenov raised the question of the existence of two kinds of reflexes. First of all, permanent, congenital, carried out by the lower parts of the nervous system. He called them "pure" reflexes. Secondly, the reflexes of the brain changeable, acquired in individual life.

I. M. Sechenov imagined these reflexes simultaneously both physiological and psychic.

I. M. Sechenov was an outstanding propagandist of the Darwinian doctrine in Russia, he introduced evolyuqionno-biological approach to brain physiologya and introduced the concept of variability and transformation of reflexes in order to successfully adapt, complicate and develop. Thus, a materialistic platform was created for linking nervous acts with psychic ones.

2. Physiological substrate of reflex acts characterized as neurodynamics. different from the dynamics of other systems. Opening central braking I. M. Sechenov in 1862 was the first step towards the creation of a new physiology of the brain. The activity of the nerve centers is now conceived as continuous dynamics of excitation and inhibition processes.

4. The Function of Think Tanks interpreted broadly. biological adaptation. The centers influence the movements in an intensifying or inhibitory way, not because they are released

the “psychic power” inherent in them, and not because the path of passage of the nerve impulse is shortened or lengthened. I. M. Sechenov introduces the concept of "physiological state of the center", which is directly related to biological needs. The very state of the center, reflecting the nature of relations with the environment, is nervous substratum of need.

F An essential addition is made to the doctrine of reflexes. The reaction becomes directly dependent not only on the stimuli present, but on the whole amounts previous influences that left long-lasting traces in the nerve centers.

5. Muscle sensitivity opens up new perspectives for deterministic analysis of behavior. I. M. Sechenov believes that a muscular feeling during the performance of one movement becomes, in the order of association of reflexes, a signal for another movement.Etcreflex association principle is the basis for teaching a person complex forms of labor activity. A common character is established for movements and for mental activity - this is the presence of muscle sensitivity.

On the question of the relationship between the physiological and the mental, I. M. Sechenov took a completely definite position, which he expressed in the following words: “For us, as for physiologists, it is enough that the brain is an organ of the soul, that is, such a living mechanism that, being set in motion by whatever reasons, gives in the final result the same series of external phenomena that characterize mental activity” 1 .

Not without reason, many believe that it was I. M. Sechenov that V. I. Lenin had in mind, citing as an example the scientific way of thinking of a “scientific psychologist”, who “... rejected philosophical theories about the soul and directly took up the study of the material sub-

1 Cross section AND.M. Selected philosophical and psychological works. M. L., 1974. S. 112.

stratum of mental phenomena - nervous processes" 1 .

F For all the persuasiveness of I. M. Sechenov's arguments, which he used to assert his views on behavior and the psyche, he lacked the most important argument - the laboratory objective method of research. Rising to the extension of the reflex principle to mental activity and considering the reflex as a psychophysiological phenomenon, I. M. Sechenov could not study the specific mechanisms of behavior due to the lack of an appropriate method. Therefore, a number of his statements remained only brilliant conjectures, a wave of his mighty thought.

The concept of a conditioned reflex. An extremely responsible mission fell to the share of I. P. Pavlov - he reinforced the brilliant guesses, foresights and thoughts of I. M. Sechenov scientific concept conditionallyGabout reflex. IP Pavlov mobilized all his skill as a talented experimenter so that his concept was introduced into the strict framework of a laboratory experiment.

1 Lenin V.I. Sobr. op. M. L., 1960. T. 1. S. 142.

our current understanding of the matter” 1 .

IP Pavlov showed himself as a consistent materialist and determinist. No wonder IP Pavlov proclaimed that the study of conditioned reflexes is based on three principles of the reflex theory: determinism, analysis and synthesis, structure. IP Pavlov fully adhered to the reflex scheme of R. Descartes and understood the significance of the reflex as one of the examples of the universal principle of determination. Already at the dawn of the development of the Pavlovian teaching, it became clear that the conditioned reflex is a pattern of a higher and more complex order than simple reflexes. The conditioned reflex ensures the variability of the adaptive behavior of the animal in relation to the outside world. The conditioned reflex is the most important factor in biological evolution. However, IP Pavlov, being intoxicated with polemics with psychologists and sharing Cartesian determinism, began to study in depth the physiological laws of conditioned reflex activity, but left the biological side of the phenomenon for the future. Hence the inevitable contradictions in the idea of a conditioned reflex: on the one hand, an adaptive act of the whole organism, on the other, an elementary process of work

1 Pavlov I.P. Sobr. op. M. L., 1952.

nervous system. All scientific work of IP Pavlov was devoted to resolving this contradiction and creating the least controversial ideology in his theory of higher nervous activity.

1. First of all was created laboratory method objective study of the adaptive activity of humans and animals - conditional methodinreflexes.

2. Studying conditioned reflexes on a whole organism, I. P. Pavlov emphasized them PricePespeciallyandtelno-evo-lYurationalsth sense for the animal world.

3. I. P. Pavlov made an attempt to localize the nervous process of the closure of nerve connections in the cortexGtin brain in higher animals and humans. At the same time, he was not categorical and did not exclude the specific participation of other parts of the brain in this process. He wrote that all our laws are always more or less conditional and have meaning only for a given time, under the conditions of a given methodology, within the limits of the available material.

4. I. P. Pavlov stated the presence in the cerebral cortex aboutcessa brakingI, which reinforced Sechenov's ideas about the inhibitory effect of the brain.

7 . At the end of my creative life

The dialectical thinking of A. A. Ukhtomsky found a vivid manifestation in his understanding of the essence of the reflex. Seeing the mechanism of activity in the reflex, he saw in the reflex act unity of internal, and external determinants, moreover, the internal determinants, in the final analysis, are also given and determined by external conditions. A. A. Ukhtomsky emphasized that “... a reflex is such a reaction that is motivated quite clearly by the current situation or environment. This, however, does not destroy the spontaneous action of the substrate, it only puts it within certain limits in its opposition to environmental factors, and from this it becomes more definite in content and meaning. The reflex is drawn not by a purely passive movement of the bone ball under the influence of a blow received by it from the outside; in this way the reflex could be depicted as long as it was necessary to emphasize in particular its motivation from the environment. But in its fullness, it appears as a meeting in time of two conditions: on the one hand, the activity prepared or formed in the substrate (cell) itself during its previous history, and, on the other hand, the external impulses of the current moment.

^ Ukhtomsky A. A. Sobr. op. Publishing House of Leningrad State University, 1954. T. V. S. 72.

Hence,

internal determinants are the accumulated history of the interaction of the reacting substrate with the environmental factor (principle of historicism).

Both by origin and by the conditions of manifestation, internal determinants are ultimately determined by environmental factors, i.e., they have only relative independence. The external acts as a complex of conditions for the existence of the internal. This means that the environment of an organism is not the entire physical world surrounding it, but only that small part of it, the elements of which are biologically significant for the organism. But for the body is biological interest only this external, which may become part of life experience i.e. part of the internal, or contribute transformation certain outsidewthem factors into internal ones.

f The historical approach allowed A. A. Ukhtomsky to reveal the real role and evaluate the significance of the conditioned reflex in the evolution of the animal world, and also to reveal one of the cardinal properties of the conditioned stimulus, its transformation from indifferent in "mandatorybny» environment component. Such a learned stimulus begins to cause a new reaction for itself. As a result of such assimilation, the body determined and fixed its attitude to this stimulus - determined its biological significance for itself.

Considering the system of reflexes in the evolutionary series, A. A. Ukhtomsky writes: “... a simple reflex of classical physiology is not the original and fundamentally general type of reflex activity of centers, over which a special area of conditioned reflexes specializes, but, on the contrary, is a particular special and late product reduction and simplification of the conditioned reflex, which from now on becomes the general type of activity of the central nervous apparatus” 1 .

f Individual adaptation of an individual with the help of conditioned reflexes serves as a kind of compass - a guideline for solving problems of the species. Natural selection reinforces those mutational acquisitions that correspond to the finds of the individual. Thus, individual adaptation goes ahead of evolutionyutsion-genetic rearrangements. The principles of historicism and the correlation of reactivity and activity in holistic behavior as a way of resolving contradictions, introduced into physiology by A. A. Ukhtomsky, significantly enriched the reflex theory, which finally got rid of the dualism and mechanism of the Cartesian persuasion, standing on firm dialectical positions.

AtKhtomsky A. A. Sobr. op. Publishing house of Leningrad State University, 1954. T. V. S. 291.

Portal for the student. Self-training

The biological concept of the reflex.

Background of the reflex theory

The importance of Descartes' discoveries

Ivan Sechenov

Formation of the reflex theory

Criticism of Sechenov's ideas in Russia

Receptor theory

Ivan Pavlov

Unconditioned and conditioned reflexes

Three Principles of Theory

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