Pyotr Anokhin

Pyotr Kuzmich Anokhin (Russian: Пётр Кузьми́ч Ано́хин) (1898–1974) was a Russian biologist and physiologist, author of Theory of functional systems and concept of systemogenesis.^[1] He made important contributions to cybernetics and psychophysiology. His pioneering concept on feedback was published in 1935.^[2]

Overview

Anokhin was born in Russia in 1898. He studied neurophysiology and received a doctorate of medicine. He was an academician of Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR and the Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. He was one of the founders of the Institute of psychology of the USSR and the laboratory of neuro-physiology of training.

In the 1920s he started his academic career under the guidance of Ivan Pavlov, Nobel Prize Winner in Physiology or Medicine in 1904. He developed the concept of feedback, published in 1935. Furthermore he "elaborated the theory of functional systems (FS) which tied together subtle neuro-physiological mechanisms and integral activity of an individual. FS theory was considered as the “methodological bridge” between psychology and physiology".^[3]

Publications

The main works of Anokhin, P.K.:

• 1935, The problem of the center and periphery in the physiology of nervous activity, Gorky, 9-70.
• 1937, The functional system as the basis for the integration of nervous process during embryogenesis. All- Union Conference of Physiologists, Biochemists and Pharmacologists, Tbilisi (p. 148-156)
• 1940, The problem of localization from the point of view of systematic notions concerning nervous functions. J.Neoropath.exp.Neorol.,9, 31-44.
• 1949, The reflex and functional system as factor of physiological integration. Fiziol.Zh.(Moskow), 35, 491-503.
• 1958, International Inhibition as a Problem of Physiology, Moscow, Medgiz.
• 1961, A new conception of the physiological architecture by conditioned reflex. Brain Mechanisms and Learning, Oxford, Blackwell (pp. 189–229)
• 1963a, A methodological analysis of key problems in the conditioned reflex, Philosophical Problems of the Physiology of Higher Nervous Activity and of Psychology, Moscow, Academy of Sciences of USSR (p. 156-214)
• 1963b, Systemogenesis as a general regulator of brain development, Progress in Brain Research, Vol. 9, The Developing Brain, Amsterdam, Elsevier (pp. 54–86).
• 1968, The biology and neuro-physiology of conditioned reflex
• 1973, Biology and neurophysiology of the conditioned reflex and its role in adaptive behavior, Elsevier, 592 p.
• 1974, Biology and Neurophysiology of the Conditioned Reflex and Its Role in Adaptive Behavior. Oxford: Pergamon,1974
• 1975, The essays on physiology of functional systems
• 1977, P.K. Anokhin, Kira V. Shuleikina, System organization of alimentary behavior in the newborn and the developing cat, Developmental Psychology, 10(5)385-419(1977)
• 1978, Philosophical aspects of the theory of functional systems.
• 1998, Cybernetics of functional systems: Selected works (Кибернетика функциональных систем), Moscow, Medicine, 400 p., (in Russian)

See also

• Theory of functional systems
• Biological cybernetics
• Systems biology
• Victor Glushkov
• Nikolai Bernstein
• Norbert Wiener
• List of neuroscientists

References

1. Anokhin, P.K(1963), Systemogenesis as a General Regulator of Brain Development, Progress in Brain Research, Vol. 9, The Developing Brain, Amsterdam, Elsevier (pp.54-86)
2. Anokhin, P.K.(1935), The Problem of the Center in the Physiology of Nervous Activity, Gorky, 9-70.
3. Who is who in Russian psychology, 2007.

External links

• Who is who in Russian psychology