Ivane Beritashvili: founder of physiology and neuroscience in Georgia

Ivan Pavlov's conditioned reflexes and Ivane Beritashvili's doctrine of image-driven behavior: Materialism, myth, and politics

Ivane Beritashvili has been regarded as an "anti-Pavlovian" for nearly a century. One respect in which Beritashvili is said to be anti-Pavlovian is in granting an explanatory role to subjective mental states in his doctrine of image-driven behavior. In this article, I aim to problematize the anti-Pavlovian assessment and argue that Beritashvili did not deviate from Pavlovian scientific norms, minor points of theoretical and methodological differences between them notwithstanding. Furthermore, several respects in which Beritashvili is claimed to be anti-Pavlovian are ways in which he resembles Pavlov. Turning my attention to Beritashvili's critics in the Soviet Union, those responsible for his censure, I argue that it is the critique of Beritashvili that runs counter to the norms Pavlov embraced. I contest the claim that his alleged deviations from Pavlovian orthodoxy justify classification as anti-Pavlovian in a sense that is either historically accurate or philosophically interesting, and submit that the grounds on which Beritashvili is derided as anti-Pavlovian would also justify labeling Pavlov himself as anti-Pavlovian. Informed by the case of Beritashvili and others who were politically persecuted for their scientific work in the Soviet Union, I conclude with reflections on science, politics, and the intrusion of the latter in the former.

Pioneers in CNS inhibition: 1. Ivan M. Sechenov, the first to clearly demonstrate inhibition arising in the brain

This article reviews the contributions of Ivan Michailovich Sechenov [1829-1905] to the neurophysiological concept of central inhibition. He first studied this concept in the frog and on himself. Later his trainees extended the study of central inhibition to other mammalian species. Outside his own country, Sechenov is better known for his prescient contributions to physiological psychology. In Russia, however, he is also revered as "the father of Russian physiology," because of his contributions to neurophysiology and other aspects of physiology including blood gases and respiration, the physiology and biomechanics of movement, and general physiology concepts that appeared in his textbooks and later works he helped translate from largely German sources. After graduation from Moscow University Medical School in 1856 he spent 3½ years in Germany and Austria where he attended lectures and conducted research under the direction of several prominent physiologists and biochemists. In his subsequent academic career he held positions at universities in St. Petersburg (1860-1870; 1876-1888), Odessa (1871-1876) and Moscow (1890-1905). From 1860 onwards he was acclaimed as a physiologist in academic circles. He was also well known in Russian society for his public lectures on physiology and his views on physiological psychology. The latter resulted in him being branded "politically unreliable" by the tsarist bureaucracy from 1863 onwards. Sechenov's first (1862) study on central inhibition remains his most memorable. He delayed the withdrawal of a frog's foot from a weak acid solution by chemical or electrical stimulation of selected parts of the central nervous system. He also noted similar effects on his own hand during co-activation of other sensory inputs by tickling or teeth gnashing.

Ivane Tarkhnishvili (Tarchanoff): a major Georgian figure from the Russian physiological school

This article is dedicated to one of the outstanding scientists of the nineteenth century: Ivane Tarkhnishvili (Tarchanoff), a Russian physiologist of Georgian origin who graduated from the St. Petersburg Medico-Surgical Academy and worked under the supervision of the founder of Russian physiology, Ivan Sechenov. Among his numerous contributions was the discovery of the skin galvanic reflex; however, Tarkhnishvili's most significant contribution was the discovery of the influence of X-rays on the central nervous system, animal behavior, the heart and circulation, and embryonic development. Indeed, these works have given rise to a new field in science (radiobiology).

The Moscow Colloquium on Electroencephalography of Higher Nervous Activity and its impact on international brain research

Late 1950s was a period of recognition of Russian neurophysiology by international neuroscience community and vice versa. This process of "opening windows in both directions" might be illustrated by the story of The Moscow Colloquium on Electroencephalography of Higher Nervous Activity. The Colloquium took place on October 6-11, 1958 at the House of Scientists in Moscow. It was organized by the Academy of Sciences of the USSR under the initiative of the Institute for Higher Nervous Activity and focused on (a) EEG correlates of cortical excitation and inhibition; (b) electrophysiological study of different brain structures and their role in conditioned reflexes; and (c) EEG of higher nervous activity in humans. At the final session it was suggested to launch an International Year for the Study of the Brain and to ask UNESCO for international coordination of brain research. This resulted into the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) founded in 1960. This article is based on unpublished records of international contacts of Soviet neurophysiologists and organization of the Moscow Colloquium from the Archive of Russian Academy of Science (ARAN), reports in Soviet periodicals, publications in obscure Festschriften, etc.

Ivane S. Beritashvili (1884-1974): from spinal cord reflexes to image-driven behavior

Ivane Beritashvili ("Beritoff" in Russian, and often in Western languages) was a major figure in 20th-century neuroscience. Mastering the string galvanometer, he founded the electrophysiology of spinal cord reflexes, showing that inhibition is a distinctly different process from excitation, contrary to the concepts of his famous mentor, Wedensky. Work on postural reflexes with Magnus was cut short by World War I, but he later demonstrated that navigation in two-dimensional space without vision is a function solely of the vestibular system rather than of muscle proprioception. Persevering in his experiments despite postwar turmoil he founded an enduring Physiology Institute in Tbilisi, where he pursued an ingenious and extensive investigation of comparative memory in vertebrates. This revealed the unique nature of mammalian memory processes, which he forthrightly called "image driven," and distinguished them unequivocally from those underlying conditional reflexes. For some 30 years the Stalinist terror confined his publications to the Russian language. Work with his colleague, Chichinadze, discovering that memory confined to one cerebral hemisphere could be accessed by the other via a specific forebrain commissure, did reach the West, and ultimately led to recognition of the fascinating "split brain" condition. In the 1950s he was removed from his professorial position for 5 years as being "anti-Pavlovian." Restored to favor, he was honorary president of the "Moscow Colloquium" that saw the foundation of the International Brain Research Organization.