Ivan Sechenov


Ivan Mikhaylovich Sechenov, was a Russian physiologist. Ivan Pavlov referred to him as the "Father of Russian physiology and scientific psychology". Sechenov is also considered one of the originators of objective psychology.
Sechenov authored the classic, Reflexes of the Brain, introducing electrophysiology and neurophysiology into laboratories and teaching of medicine.

Biography

Sechenov was born in the village of Tepli Stan, which is now known as Sechenov, Gorky Oblast. He was a son of a nobleman and a peasant. Sechenov was first taught by private tutors and he had mastered German and French at an early age. By the age of 14, he was admitted to the St. Petersburg Military Engineering School. After his military training, he became interested with medicine so he studied medicine at Moscow University, completing an M.D. degree in 1856. He received the best of Russian education both in basic and clinical sciences. He then pursued higher medical education abroad and was mentored and influenced by European scientists that included Johannes Müller, Emil DuBois-Reymond, Hermann von Helmholtz, Carl F. W. Ludwig, Robert W. Bunsen, and Heinrich Magnus. Sechenov worked as a professor at the Medical Surgery Academy until 1870.
Sechenov's major interest was neurophysiology. He showed that brain activity is linked to electric currents and developed an interest in electrophysiology. Among his discoveries was the cerebral :wikt:inhibition|inhibition of spinal reflexes. He also maintained that chemical factors in the environment of the cell are of great importance.
From 1856–1862 Sechenov studied and worked in Europe in laboratories of Mueller, du Bois-Reymond, von Helmholtz, Felix Hoppe-Seyler, Ludwig, and Claude Bernard.
Like several other Russian scientists of the period Sechenov was often in conflict with the tsarist government and conservative colleagues, but he did not emigrate. In 1866, the censorship committee in St. Petersburg attempted judicial procedures accusing Sechenov of spreading materialism and of "debasing of Christian morality".

Impact

Sechenov's work laid the foundations for the study of reflexes, animal and human behaviour, and neuroscience. He was an influence on Vladimir Bekhterev and Vladimir Nikolayevich Myasishchev when they set up the Institute of Brain and Psychic Activity in 1918.

Selected works