[History of the mainstream scientific research at the Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences]. / Magistral'nye napravleniia nauchnykh issledovanii Instituta vysshei nervnoi deiatel'nosti i neirofiziologii Rossiiskoi Akademii nauk v ikh istoricheskom razvitii.

The classical reflex theory of the higher nervous activity has been developed in the works of E.A. Asratyan, the first director of the Institute, and his scientific school. The novel aspects of the theory have been developed: the principle of system organization; the concept of the nervous center as a set of structures located in different areas of the central nervous system; conditioned switchover, the mechanism of conditioned connection closure; the origin and localization of conditioned inhibition; the two-way, forward and backward conditioned connections. The elaboration of physiological mechanisms of the active goal-directed motivated behavior was begun. V.S. Rusinov and his collaborates have developed the concept of the dominanta and role of the stationary excitation foci in the integrative brain activity. M.N. Livanov has created the concept of the spatio-temporal organization of bioelectric potential and systemic organization of brain activity. P.V. Simonov, beginning from 1964, has developed the need-informational theory of the human and animal higher nervous activity (behavior). As distinct from the theories that originate from a single viewpoint and reject all the others, Simonov's theory is integrative and follows the logic of development of brain science.

[The pre-Pavlov period in the development of neurophysiology in the Academy of Sciences]. / Dopavlovskii period razvitiia neirofiziologii v Akademii nauk.

Over the course of the XVIIIth-XIXth centuries, in the Russian Academy of Sciences investigations were actively pursued into the physiology of the nervous system. These studies were published and widely discussed. A valuable contribution was made by D. Bernulli, P. A. Zagorskii, G. F. Bidder, F. V. Ovsiannikov, I. M. Sechenov, I. R. Tarkhanov, N. E. Vvedenskii, I. G. Orshanskii and others.

[I. P. Pavlov's teacher of physiology I. F. Tsion (1842-1912)]. / Uchitel' I. P. pavlova po fiziologii I. F. Tsion (1842-1912).

In 1866, at the C. Ludwig's laboratory, E. F. Cyon discovered n. depressor, and after C. Bernard's presentation he was awarded with the Montion Prize of the Paris Academy of Sciences. In 1867, together with his brother M. Cyon, he discovered nn. accelerantes of heart, which increase the heart rate when being stimulated. From 1868 to 1874 he was a privatdocent an professor of physiology at Saint-Petersburg University, where under his guidance I.P. Pavlov mastered the brilliant technique of vivisection experiment and accomplished his first works on the physiology of circulation and digestion. From 1872 to 1874 E. F. Cyon was physiology professor at Saint-Petersburg Medical-Surgical Academy. He published "Course of Physiology" in 2 volumes, the official speech "Heart and Brain" and others, proposed an original theory of inhibition, improved the reflex theory. He published 197 works, including 151 in German and French. I. P. Pavlov paid a worthy tribute to his teacher and continued the main direction of his investigations.