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

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:55

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

Study

Anokhin Petr Kuzmich was born in the city of Tsaritsyn in 1898. In 1913, the boy graduated from the primary higher school. Due to the difficult situation in the family, Peter had to go to work as an iron worker as a clerk. Then he passed the exams and received the profession of "postal and telegraph official".

Fateful meeting

In the early years of the new system, Petr Kuzmich Anokhin worked as editor-in-chief and press commissar in the Novocherkassk edition of Krasny Don. In those days, he accidentally met with the famous revolutionary Lunacharsky. The latter traveled with the propaganda train troops on the Southern Front. Lunacharsky and Anokhin had a long conversation on the topic of the human brain and its study in order to "understand the material mechanisms of the human soul." This meeting predetermined the future fate of the hero of our article.

Highereducation

In the autumn of 1921 Anokhin Petr Kuzmich went to Petrograd and entered the GIMZ, which was headed by Bekhterev. Already in the first year, the young man conducted under his leadership a scientific work en titled "The influence of minor and major vibrations of sounds on inhibition and excitation of the cerebral cortex." A year later, he listened to several lectures by Pavlov and got a job in his laboratory.

After graduating from the GIMZ, Peter was hired as a senior assistant at the Department of Physiology at the Leningrad Zootechnical Institute. Anokhin also 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 blood circulation of the brain.

New position

In 1930, Petr Kuzmich Anokhin, a biography and interesting facts about which is in any textbook on physiology, received a professorship at the University of Nizhny Novgorod (Faculty of Medicine). This was partly due to Pavlov's recommendation. Soon, the faculty was separated from the university, and a separate medical university was created on its basis. At the same time, Petr Kuzmich headed the Department of Physiology at the Nizhny Novgorod Institute.

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

Sanctioning Afferentation

It was this term that Anokhin Petr Kuzmich introduced into scientific use in 1935. The theory of functional systems, or rather its first definition, was given by him around the same period of time. The formulated concept influenced all his further research activities. Anokhin realized that a systematic approach is the most progressive way to solve various physiological problems.

In the same year, part of the employees of the Nizhny Novgorod University moved to VIEM, which was located in Moscow. There Pyotr Kuzmich organized the Department of Neurophysiology. Some of his research was carried out in collaboration with the Krol Clinic of Neurology and with the Department of Micromorphology, headed by Lavrentiev.

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

Wartime work

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

In 1942Anokhin returned to Moscow and became head of the physiological laboratory of the Institute of Neurosurgery. Here he continued to consult and operate. Also, together with Burdenko, the scientist explored 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 lateral neuromas and their treatment. Immediately after that, Pyotr Kuzmich was elected a professor at Moscow University.

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

Criticism

In 1950, a scientific session was held dedicated to the problems of Pavlov's teachings. A number of scientific directions developed by his students were criticized: Speransky, Beritashvili, Orbeli and others. The theory of functional systems of the hero of this article also caused sharp rejection.

Here's what Professor Asratyan said about this: “When Bernstein, Efimov, Stern and other persons who know Pavlov's teachings superficially come forward with separate frivolities, it's ridiculous. When an experienced and knowledgeable physiologist Beritashvili comes up with anti-Pavlovian concepts, not being his student and follower, this is annoying. But when a student of Pavlov systematically tries to revise his work from the standpoint of pseudoscientific idealistic "theories"bourgeois scientists is simply outrageous.”

Moving

After this conference Anokhin Petr Kuzmich, whose contribution to science was not appreciated, was removed from his post at the Institute of Physiology. The management of the institution sent a scientist to Ryazan. There he worked as a professor until 1952. Over the next three years, Petr Kuzmich headed the Department of Physiology of the Central Institute in Moscow.

New Works

In 1955, Anokhin became a professor at the Sechenov Medical University. Pyotr Kuzmich actively worked in this position and managed to do a lot of new things in the physiological field. He formulated the theory of sleep and wakefulness, the biological theory of emotions, and proposed an original theory of satiety and hunger. In addition, Anokhin completed 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

Pyotr Kuzmich combined scientific activity with teaching. Wherever Anokhin worked, he always attracted students to this process. All of his students wrote scientific papers with a specific theme. Pyotr Kuzmich tried to arouse 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, as the scientific depthcombined in them with a lively and clear presentation of the material, figurativeness and expressiveness of speech, as well as the undeniable validity of the conclusions. In the spirit of the best traditions of the Soviet school of physiology, Anokhin strove both for the clarity of the transfer of information, and for the demonstrativeness, visibility of the material. Physiological experiments on animals added additional attraction to the professor's lectures. Many students considered his lectures to be improvisations. In reality, the scientist carefully prepared for them.

Recent 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 Pavlov Gold Medal for founding a new direction in neurophysiology related to the study of the functional organization of the brain. After that, he traveled to congresses in the United States and Japan with reports on the topic of memory. Thanks to these speeches, he was noticed in the international scientific community.

The academician died in 1974. Pyotr Kuzmich was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.