Formation of scientific researches program of the Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of the USSR Academy of Sciences from the moment of its foundation in 1951 till the present time is considered as a result of creative interaction and inter-enrichment of three scientific schools connected with the names of E. A. Asratian, M. N. Livanov and V. S. Rusinov. The systemic principle in the integrative brain activity, the dominant phenomenon and the idea on spatial synchronization of the electrical processes in various cerebral micro- and macrostructures at the elaboration of conditioned reflex became a basis of long-term strategy of studies of the human and animals higher nervous activity. At the present time these studies embrace two main trends: mechanisms of learning and memory and neurophysiological bases of consciousness.
In rats injected with neurotoxin 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) the development of experimental depressive syndrome was accompanied by local epileptiform activity in the caudate-putamen complex and by reorganization of electrical processes in the brain. The spectral power density in the caudate-putamen in the delta range was increased in the formative stage of depressive syndrome (day 3-4 from the beginning of MPTP administration) and in the stage of behaviour recovery (a week after the withdrawal) as compared to control rats. On the contrary, the spectral power in the alpha range was decreased at the peak of depression (day 11-12 from the beginning of neurotoxin administration) and a week after the withdrawal as compared to the initial value. In the formative stage of depressive syndrome the spectral power in the delta range was increased in hippocampus whereas in sensorimotor cortex it was decreased at the frequency 6 Hz compared to control. It is suggested that a new pathodynamical organization is formed in the CNS of animals in response to MPTP administration, which is thought to be a neuropathophysiological basis of depressive syndrome.
Dynamics of appearance and maintenance of emotional-behavioural disorders in male Wistar rats was studied on and after repeated neurotoxin MPTP injection at a dose of 15 mg/kg intraperitoneally daily for 18 days MPTP caused suppression of locomotion and rearing in open field test, decrease of daily liquid consumption and lowering of preference for the sucrose over water, increase of immobility time and depression index simultaneously with disadaptation in forced swimming test. Behavioural alterations were maintained for not less than a week after abolition of MPTP injection. Data improved the appearance and development of the state of decreased motivation simultaneously with anhedonia and behavioural despair in rats in response to MPTP injection. The state can be considered as a new model of DA-depended depression-like syndrome in rats.
Effects of some substances (which influence on mobilization of deported Ca2+ and intracellular level of second messengers) on identified neurons RPa3 and LPa3 of Helix lucorum were studied using two-electrode voltage clamp technique. The action of inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3), inositolhexakisphosphate (IP6), TMB-8 inhibitor of IP3-dependent Ca2+ mobilization), tetracaine (inhibitor of Ca(2+)-dependent mobilization of Ca2+), and phospholipase D (which catalyzes phosphatidic acid formation from membrane phosphatidylcholine) was studied. Participation of IP3, IP3-dependent-, Ca(2+)-dependent mobilized intracellular Ca2+ and phosphatidic acid in regulation of cholinoreceptor plasticity was shown in Helix neurons.
The dynamics of direct current potentials of the brain was studied in 10-11-year-old children during sustained attention to successive presentation of series of Shulte tables. Children were examined twice: before and after the series of training to fast reading. A gradual increase in the level of direct current potentials during sustained attention was observed. The increase was more pronounced in children with excessive than in children with moderate reactions to the loading. After the series of training to fast reading, the increase in the level of direct current potentials was reduced in both groups. This aftertraining neurophysiological phenomenon was combined with a transformation of psychophysiological characteristics: a decrease in the time of viewing of Shulte tables and increase in the speed of reading. It is suggested that the shifts of direct current potentials reflects the dynamics of intensity of the cerebral energy metabolism.
Changes of conditioned reflexes were analyzed in albino rats during their 18.5 days on board the "Cosmos-1129" bio-satellite. With total lowering of the level of conditioned activity, the most affected proved to be reactions linked with internal inhibition; differentions were disinhibited, the number of intersignal reactions significantly exceeded control values. During the experiment photoperiodic desynchronosis took place, the nature of which also testified to high sensitivity of the inhibitory processes to the action of cosmic flight factors.
Ivan Solomonovich Beritashvili (Beritov) is one of the great Russian physiologists who have created the Russian route of the modern science of behavior. He has proposed and experimentally substantiated a concept of psychoneural activity according to which the behavior controlled by images is the main and higher form of the behavior of vertebrates. Behaviors on the basis of conditioned reflexes and images are qualitatively different activities underlain by different neural substrates. Recently, the Beritashvili's principle ideas have been confirmed by multiple experimental studies of the animal and human cognitive behavior. At present, the concept of the procedural memory formed by training and acquisition and episodic memory formed on the basis of images is commonly accepted. The episodic memory stores the environmental events and phenomena perceived by an animal or a human. Each time when the image is reproduced during perception of environment or its part, an animal performs the same behavioral act as during the actual perception. Beritashvili's viewpoint that the procedural and declarative memories are controlled by different brain structures has been confirmed by experiments.
Congenic mouse strain AKR.CBA-D13Mit76 carries the 59-70 cM fragment of chromosome 13 transferred from genome of cataleptic CBA/Lac strain to genome of AKR/J none-cataleptic strain. This fragment contains the major gene of predisposition to pinch-induced catalepsy. We investigated contribution of the fragment to regulation of sensitivity of catalepsy, sexual motivation and social investigation to classical tricyclic antidepressant imipramine. The sexual motivation was higher in AKR.CBA-D13Mit76 than in AKR mice. Chronic imipramine treatment (25 mg/kg) reduced it in AKR.CBA-D13Mit76 mice and had no effect on weakly expressed sexual motivation of AKR males. No significant effects of genotype or chronic imipramine treatment on characteristics of social interest were observed. Imipramine failed to alter catalepsy expression in AKR.CBA-DI3Mit76 mice. Possible molecular genetic mechanisms underlying difference in behavioral responses to antidepressant administration are discussed.
By the method of factor analysis characteristics of functional brain states in children and juveniles of different age with neuroses were studied by EEG data. Similarity was established of the patients EEG structure at strained and emotional states. In the studied period of individual development (7-14 years) the most expressed changes of background EEG were observed at the age og 9-12 years. At functional loads, beginning from the age of 9-10, insufficient activity of the frontal region of the left hemisphere was found. The greatest changes of the EEG integral characteristics were observed in patients with vegetative-emotional disturbances and the smallest-at verbal-motor ones.
In acute experiments with 9 anesthetized and immobilized cats, the relative tangential square of the activated cortical columns in area 17 was mapped by the intrinsic optical signal under stimulation with grids of different orientation. We examined the "oblique effect", i.e. the greater representation of neurons tuned to the vertical and horizontal orientations vs. oblique orientations in the primary visual cortex. The square of the activated parts of the cortex was estimated under different threshold criteria (80, 60 and 40% of the maximum). The "oblique effect" was not observed in our study: the areas of activation of the cortical columns did not differ statistically for two basic vs. oblique orientations. Reasons for the difference between the results of electrophysiological and optical mapping are suggested and possible contributions of the experimental protocol (anesthesia) and individual visual experience in different animals' samples to the origin of these differences are discussed.
The present study evaluated the ability of 17beta-estradiol to induce anxiolytic- and antidepressant-like action in adult ovariectomized female offspring of dams that were restrained under lights for 1 h on gestational days 15-19. There were no differences in behavioral profile of ovariectomized prenatal stressed and control female rats. Injections of 17beta-estradiol (0.5 microg/rat) in the course of two week had minimal behavioral effects in control rats, but produced a decrease of immobility in the forced swimming test and anxiety level in the elevated plus maze in prenatal stressed rats. These findings suggest that ovariectomized prenatal stressed female rats demonstrate more sensitivity to estrogen-replacement.
It was demonstrated that passive immunization of pregnant female rats against MP65 and ACBP14/18 proteins leads to stable changes in offspring behavior (deviations in acquisition of active avoidance in a shuttle-box and changes in the open-field behavior). Immunomorphological data about localization of MP65 and ACBP14/18 proteins in brain slices of adult rats and rat embryos are presented. The obtained results are discussed in terms of the influence of maternal humoral immunity on the formation of fetal nervous system during intrauterine development.
The development of the spatial short-term memory (SSTM) in children aged 18-54-months was assessed by performance of the inverted delayed-response task (IDR). A child perceived the localization of a target object in one of the two containers (left or right) situated on a table in front of the child. The distance between the containers was 30 cm. Then the child was escorted to the opposite side of the table so that the target object that was earlier in the left container seemed to be in the right one. After the rotation, in 74% of cases children at the age of 18-24-months failed to localize the object correctly despite the presence of various reference objects in the room. Percent of correct responses increased with age. Children aged 24-54-months performed the IDR better in the presence of reference objects than in their absence. The preschool children at the age of 48-54-months correctly localized the object in 70% of cases even in the absence of the experimental reference objects. The results of this experiment demonstrate the stages of the SSTM development in children.
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.
The main pathstones of methodological approaches to objective exploration of mental activity outlined by I.P. Pavlov in 1903, in particular, such its features as the ability to forsee the results, expediency, reasonable character, and adaptivity of behavior are considered. Stages of methodological perfection of investigations of the inner (mental) states of living organisms, semantic transformation of conditioned reflex, conditioning of the first and second orders, systems of conditioned reflexes, psychonervous activity, causal and extrapolative reflexes are analyzed. The significance of the development of the theory of the functional system by P.K. Anokhin and the modern state of its understanding are shown. The functional significance and neurophysiologic mechanisms of movement task, programming, motivation, memory engram, reinforcement etc. is discussed.
The hypothesis was tested that one of the critical mechanisms underlying genetically determined aggressiveness involves brain serotonin 5-HT(1A)-receptors. The expression of 5-HT(1A)-receptor mRNA in brain structures and functional correlate for 5-HT(1A)-receptors identified as 8-OH-DPAT-induced hypothermia were studied in Norway rats bred over the course of 59 generations for the low and high affective (defensive) aggressiveness with respect to man and in highly aggressive (offensive) MAO A-knockout mice (Tg8 strain). Considerable differences between the aggressive and the nonaggressive animals were shown. Agonist of 5-HT(1A)-receptor 8-OH-DPAT (0.5 mg/kg for rats and 2.0 mg/kg for mice, i.p.) produced a distinct hypothermic reaction in nonaggressive rats and mice and did not affect significantly the body temperature in aggressive animals. In aggressive rats, a significant reduction of the expression of 5-HT(1A)-receptor mRNA was found in the midbrain. In Tg8 mice, 5-HT(1A)-receptor mRNA level was increased in the frontal cortex and amygdala and not changed in the hypothalamus and the midbrain. The results provide support for the idea that brain 5-HT(1A)-receptors contribute to the genetically determined individual differences in aggressiveness.
