Physiologist Anokhin Pyotr Kuzmich: biography, contribution to science, books

Anokhin Pyotr Kuzmich is a famous Soviet physiologist and academician. Member of the Civil War. He gained fame due to the creation of the theory of functional systems. In this article you will be presented with his brief biography.

Learning

Anokhin Peter Kuzmich was born in the city of Tsaritsyn in 1898. In 1913, the boy graduated from the elementary higher school. In connection with the difficult situation in the family, Peter had to go to work for iron work clerk. Then he passed the exams and received the profession of "postal and telegraph official."

Fateful meeting

In the first years of the new system, Pyotr Kuzmich Anokhin worked as editor-in-chief and commissioner for the press in the Novocherkassk edition of the Red Don. In those days he accidentally met with the famous revolutionary Lunacharsky. The latter traveled with the agitation train troops on the Southern Front. Lunacharsky and Anokhin talked for a long time about the human brain and its study for "understanding the material mechanisms of the human soul." This meeting predetermined the fate of the hero of our article.

Higher education

In the autumn of 1921, Anokhin Pyotr Kuzmich went to Petrograd and entered the GIMZ, headed by Bekhterev. Already in the first year the young man conducted under his guidance a scientific work entitled "The influence of minor and major oscillations of sounds on inhibition and excitation of the cerebral cortex." A year later he listened to several lectures Pavlov and settled in his laboratory.

After the end of the St. Petersburg State Museum of Art, Peter was hired as a senior assistant at the Department of Physiology at the Leningrad Zootechnical Institute. Also, Anokhin continued to work in Pavlov's laboratory. He conducted a series of experiments on the effect of acetylcholine on the secretory and vascular functions of the salivary gland, and also studied the circulation of the brain.

New post

In 1930, Petr Kuzmich Anokhin, a biography and interesting facts about which there is in any textbook on physiology, received a post of professor at the University of Nizhny Novgorod (medical faculty). Part of this contributed to the recommendation of Pavlov. Soon the faculty was separated from the university, and on its basis a separate medical college was created. Simultaneously, Pyotr Kuzmich headed the Department of Physiology at the Nizhny Novgorod Institute.

At that time, Anokhin introduced new ways of studying conditioned reflexes. This motor-secretory, as well as the original method using the sudden substitution of unconditioned reinforcement. The latter allowed Pyotr Kuzmich to come to an important conclusion about the formation of a special apparatus in the central nervous system. In it, parameters of future reinforcement were already present. In 1955, this apparatus was called the "acceptor of the result of the action."

Authorization afferentation

This very term was introduced in 1935 by Anokhin Pyotr Kuzmich. The theory of functional systems, or rather its first definition, was given to them about the same time period. The formulated concept influenced all its further scientific and research activity. Anokhin realized that the systemic approach is the most progressive way to solve various physiological problems.

In the same year, part of the staff of the University of Nizhny Novgorod moved to VIEM, which was in Moscow. There, Pyotr Kuzmich organized a department of neurophysiology. Some of his studies were carried out in collaboration with the clinic of neurology Krol and with the department of micromorphology headed by Lavrentiev.

In 1938, at the invitation of Burdenko, physiologist Anokhin Pyotr Kuzmich, whose biography is the subject of imitation for other scientists, headed the neuropsychiatric sector of the Central Neurosurgical University. There the scientist was engaged in the development of the theoretical concept of a nerve scar.

Work in wartime

Immediately after the war, Anokhin was evacuated to Tomsk with VIEM. There he headed the neurosurgical department of injuries of the peripheral nervous system (PNS). In the future, Pyotr Kuzmich will summarize his neurosurgical experience in the work "Nerve Plasticity in Traumas of PNS". This monograph was published in 1944.

In 1942, Anokhin returned to Moscow and became head of the physiological laboratory of the Institute of Neurosurgery. Here he continued to advise and operate. Also, together with Burdenko, the scientist investigated the field of surgical treatment of military injuries of the National Assembly. The result of their work was an article on the structural features of the side neuromus and their treatment. Right after that, Peter Kuzmich was elected a professor at Moscow University.

In 1944, on the basis of the laboratory and department of neurophysiology VIEM, a new Institute of Physiology appeared. Anokhin Pyotr Kuzmich, whose books were not at that time very popular, was appointed there as the head of the profile department. In subsequent years, the scientist occupied the post of deputy head for scientific work in this institution , as well as the director.

Criticism

In 1950, a scientific session devoted to the problems of the teaching of Pavlov took place. Criticism was subjected to a number of scientific trends that his students developed: Speransky, Beritashvili, Orbeli, etc. The theory of the functional systems of the hero of this article also caused sharp rejection.

Professor Asratyan said: "When Bernshtein, Efimov, Stern and others who are superficially familiar with Pavlov's teachings come forward with some kind of unintelligence, it's ridiculous. When an experienced and knowledgeable physiologist Beritashvili comes forward with anti-Pavlovian concepts, not being his disciple and follower - it's annoying. But when Pavlov's student systematically tries to revise his work from the point of view of the pseudoscientific idealist "theories" of bourgeois scientists, this is simply outrageous. "

Moving in

After this conference, Anokhin Pyotr Kuzmich, whose contribution to science was not appreciated, was dismissed from the Institute of Physiology. The administration of the institution sent the scientist to Ryazan. There he worked as a professor until 1952. Over the next three years, Pyotr Kuzmich was in charge of the Department of Physiology of the Central Institute in Moscow.

New works

In 1955, Anokhin became a professor at Sechenov Medical University. Pyotr Kuzmich actively worked in this position and managed to make a lot of new things in the physiological field. He formulated the theory of sleep and wakefulness, the biological theory of emotions, proposed an original theory of satiety and hunger. In addition, Anokhin gave the completed form of his concept of a functional system. Also in 1958, the scientist wrote a monograph on internal inhibition, where he presented a new interpretation of this mechanism.

Teaching

Scientific activity of Peter Kuzmich combined with the pedagogical. Wherever Anokhin was working, he always attracted students to this process. All his students wrote a scientific paper with a certain theme. Pyotr Kuzmich tried to excite in them a creative creative spirit. With his attention and benevolent attitude the physiologist motivated students to creative activity. Anokhin's lectures were very popular, because the scientific depth was combined in them with a lively and clear exposition of the material, imagery and expressiveness of speech, as well as the unquestionable validity of the conclusions. In the spirit of the best traditions of the Soviet school of physiology, Anokhin aspired both to clarity of information transmission, and to demonstrativeness, visibility of the material. Additional physiological lectures of the professor were added by physiological experiments on animals. Many students considered his lectures improvisations. In reality, the scientist carefully prepared for them.

Last years

From 1969 to 1974, Anokhin Petr Kuzmich, whose biography was presented above, was in charge of the laboratory at the Institute of Pathological and Normal Physiology of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. In 1961 he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. And in 1968 he was awarded the gold medal of Pavlov for the foundation of a new direction in neurophysiology, connected with the study of the functional organization of the brain. After that, he went to congresses in the US and Japan with reports on the theme of memory. Thanks to these speeches, he was noticed in the international scientific community.

Academician died in 1974. Pyotr Kuzmich was buried at Novodevichye Cemetery.