Stories
The physiology of Nickolai Bernstein
Evolution of
the brain
and social behavior
Learning languages
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Even before going to the Soviet Union and learning about the work of Bernstein, I was struck by the work of the Bernstein students Orlovsky and Shik and saw it as the basis for a general understanding of brain structure and function. I analyzed it in the form of a small unpublished book with 75 pages and 25 figures. The book was organized in a quasi-evolutionary fashion, developing successive models of fish and land vertebrates, in a series of figures, each more complex and each derived from the previous figures. It culminated in the following composite structure of a primitive land veretebrate.
Composite figure of basic brain structure. For a larger image, click here.
On returning from the Soviet Union in 1976, I decided to concentrate on the brain structure of aggressive behavior, and let the general brain structure go for a while. As one can see by comparing the figures on this page to that of the brain structure of aggressive behavior, the analyses are rather similar. Several years later, I went so far as to get some mudpuppy salamanders with the idea of training them to walk on an underwater treadmill and recording from their motor systems during that activity, but other priorities intervened and I never undertook the study or finished the motor systems analysis of general brain structure.
In recent years the task has been taken up by Sten Grillner in Sweden, who is now accomplishing what I dreamed of 30 years ago. In fact, Grigor Orlovsky, the Bernstein student who first inspired me, is working in his lab.
Having completed an update of my 1979 review on the brain structure of aggressive behavior in 2006, I sent a copy to Grillner, suggesting that the two analyses are complementary. Unfortunately, he did not reply.
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Stages
1986-1992
Fall of Soviet Empire
1992-1997
UNESCO Culture of Peace Programme