The conditioned food reflex is Higher nervous activity

The outstanding Russian physiologist I.M. Sechenov was the first to express the idea of ​​the connection between the consciousness and thinking of a person with the reflex activity of his brain. This idea was developed and convincingly confirmed in numerous experiments by I.P. Pavlova. Therefore, I.P. Pavlov is considered the creator of the doctrine of higher nervous activity.

Higher nervous activity- these are the functions of the cerebral cortex and the nearest subcortical formations, where temporary nerve connections (conditioned reflexes) are developed anew, providing the most subtle and perfect individual adaptation of the body to changing environmental conditions.

UNCONDITIONAL AND CONDITIONAL REFLEXES

Higher nervous activity is reflex in nature. Unconditioned and conditioned reflexes are inherent in higher animals and man. Their specifics are as follows.

unconditioned reflexes, ensuring the maintenance of life in relatively constant environmental conditions, inherent in man from birth. These include food (sucking, swallowing, salivation, etc.), defensive (coughing, blinking, hand withdrawal, etc.), reproduction (feeding and caring for offspring), respiratory, etc.

Conditioned reflexes are produced on the basis of unconditioned when exposed to a conditioned stimulus. They provide a more perfect adaptation of the body to changing environmental conditions. They help to find food by smell, get away from danger, navigate, etc.

Meaning of the word. In humans, conditioned reflexes can be formed not only as in animals, on the basis of the first signal system, when the conditioned stimuli are directly objects of the outside world, but also on the basis of the second (speech) signal system, when the conditioned stimuli are words expressing concepts of objects and phenomena . Conditioned reflexes are the physiological basis of technical processes, the basis of thinking. The word is a kind of stimulus for many conditioned reflexes. For example, just talking about food or describing it can cause a person to salivate.

Features of conditioned and unconditioned reflexes

Unconditioned reflexes	Conditioned reflexes (temporary connections)
Congenital, hereditarily transmitted reflex reactions of this type	Acquired in the process of individual development based on unconditioned reflexes
Reflex centers are located in the subcortical nuclei, brain stem and spinal cord	Reflex centers are located in the cerebral cortex
Racks. They persist throughout life. Their number is limited	Changeable. New reflections arise, and the old ones fade away when the environmental conditions change. Quantity is unlimited
Carry out the relationship of parts of the body, reflex self-regulation and maintaining the constancy of the internal environment	Carry out a reflex reaction of the body to a stimulus (conditioned), signaling the upcoming action of an unconditioned stimulus

The consciousness of people is connected with the activity of the cerebral cortex. This has been convincingly proven by numerous experiments by IP Pavlov, as well as by the study of diseases and disorders of the brain.

The teachings of IP Pavlov on the higher nervous activity of a person convincingly proved the inconsistency and anti-science of religious ideas about the "soul".

Inhibition of conditioned reflexes. When environmental conditions change, previously developed conditioned reflexes fade away, new ones are formed. IP Pavlov distinguished two types of inhibition of conditioned reflexes.

External braking occurs when the body is exposed to an irritant that is stronger than the previous one. At the same time, a new focus of excitation is formed in the cerebral cortex. For example, in a dog, the conditioned salivary reflex developed to light (see "Digestion") is inhibited under experimental conditions by a stronger stimulus - the sound of a bell. The latter causes a strong excitation in the auditory zone of the cerebral cortex. At first, it generates inhibition of neighboring areas, and then spreads to the visual zone. Therefore, excitation through the neurons located in it cannot be carried out and the arc of the former conditioned reflex is interrupted.

Internal braking occurs in the arc of the conditioned reflex when the conditioned stimulus ceases to receive reinforcement from the unconditioned stimulus and the temporary connections formed in the cortex are gradually inhibited. When conditioned reflexes are repeated in the same sequence, dynamic stereotypes are formed that make up habits and skills.

Hygiene of physical and mental labor. The activity of the body depends on the state of the central nervous system. Its overwork leads to a breakdown of the vital functions of the body, reduces perception, attention, memory and performance.

With monotonous physical labor, only one muscle group works and only one section of the central nervous system is excited, which leads to its fatigue.

To avoid overwork, it is useful to carry out industrial gymnastics during breaks, in which other muscles participate. This, in turn, leads to the excitation of new areas of the cerebral cortex, inhibition of previously working areas, their rest and restoration of working capacity.

Mental labor also causes fatigue of the central nervous system. The best rest in this case is gymnastics or other physical activity.

Of great importance in the formation of conditioned reflexes is the regime of the day. If it is observed, a person develops many important conditioned reflexes that stimulate the better functioning of various organ systems and prevent their overwork.

The alternation of physical and mental labor, the rationalization of labor, the observance of the daily routine, and active rest are of paramount importance for protecting the central nervous system from overwork.

Sleep gives the most complete rest to the central nervous system. The alternation of sleep and wakefulness is a necessary condition for human existence. I.P. Pavlov proved experimentally that sleep is an inhibition that covers the cerebral cortex and other parts of the brain. During sleep, metabolism, hearing, smell, and the intensity of activity of a number of organ systems decrease, muscle tone decreases, and thinking is turned off. Sleep is a protective device against overwork of the nervous system. Babies sleep 20-22 hours, schoolchildren - 9-11 hours, adults - 7-8 hours. With lack of sleep, a person loses his ability to work. In order for the body to get the most complete rest during sleep, it is necessary to go to bed at the same time, eliminate bright lights, noise, ventilate the room, etc.

Unconditioned reflexes are congenital, hereditarily transmitted reactions of the body. Conditioned reflexes- these are reactions acquired by the body in the process of individual development on the basis of "life experience".

Unconditioned reflexes are specific, i.e., characteristic of all representatives of a given species. Conditioned reflexes are individual: some representatives of the same species may have them, while others may not.

Unconditioned reflexes are relatively constant; conditioned reflexes are unstable and, depending on certain conditions, they can be developed, consolidated or disappear; this is their property and is reflected in their very name.

Unconditioned reflexes are carried out in response to adequate stimuli applied to one specific receptive field. Conditioned reflexes can be formed in response to a wide variety of stimuli applied to various receptive fields.

In animals with a developed cerebral cortex, conditioned reflexes are a function of the cerebral cortex. After the removal of the cerebral cortex, the developed conditioned reflexes disappear and only unconditioned reflexes remain. This indicates that in the implementation of unconditioned reflexes, in contrast to conditioned reflexes, the leading role belongs to the lower parts of the central nervous system - the subcortical nuclei, the brain stem and the spinal cord. It should be noted, however, that in humans and monkeys, which have a high degree of corticalization of functions, many complex unconditioned reflexes are carried out with the obligatory participation of the cerebral cortex. This is proved by the fact that its lesions in primates lead to pathological disturbances of unconditioned reflexes and the disappearance of some of them.

It should also be emphasized that not all unconditioned reflexes appear immediately at the time of birth. Many unconditioned reflexes, for example, those associated with locomotion, sexual intercourse, occur in humans and animals a long time after birth, but they necessarily appear under the condition of normal development of the nervous system. Unconditioned reflexes are part of the fund of reflex reactions that has become stronger in the process of phylogenesis and is hereditarily transmitted.

Conditioned reflexes are developed on the basis of unconditioned reflexes. For the formation of a conditioned reflex, it is necessary to combine in time some kind of litto change in the external environment or the internal state of the organism, perceived by the cerebral cortex, with the implementation of one or another unconditioned reflex. Only under this condition does a change in the external environment or the internal state of the organism become an irritant of the conditioned reflex - a conditioned stimulus, or signal. The stimulus that causes the unconditioned reflex - the unconditioned stimulus - must, during the formation of the conditioned reflex, accompany the conditioned stimulus, reinforce it.

In order for the ringing of knives and forks in the dining room or the knock of a cup from which a dog is fed to cause salivation in the first case in a person, in the second case in a dog, these sounds need to coincide again with food - reinforcement of stimuli that are initially indifferent in relation to salivary secretion by feeding , i.e., unconditioned irritation of the salivary glands. Likewise, the flashing of an electric light before the dog's eyes or the sound of a bell will only cause a conditioned reflex flexion of the paw if they are repeatedly accompanied by electrical stimulation of the skin of the leg, causing an unconditioned flexion reflex with each application.

Similarly, the crying of a child and his pulling his hands away from a burning candle will be observed only if the sight of the candle coincided at least once with the sensation of a burn. In all the examples cited, external agents that are relatively indifferent at the beginning - the ringing of dishes, the sight of a burning candle, the flashing of an electric light bulb, the sound of a bell - become conditioned stimuli if they are reinforced by unconditioned stimuli. Only under this condition, the initially indifferent signals of the external world become irritants of a certain type of activity.

For the formation of conditioned reflexes, it is necessary to create a temporary connection, a circuit between the cortical cells that perceive the conditioned stimulation, and the cortical neurons that make up the arc of the unconditioned reflex.

Reflexes are unconditional, that is, innate, and conditional, that is, acquired during the life of a person or animal. In this article, we will consider conditioned reflexes, which play a very important role in our lives. Conditioned reflexes were studied by such a famous scientist and psychologist as I.P. Pavlov, a person I respect, his works are invaluable to me. In principle, conditioned reflexes have something in common with the theme of the so-called anchoring, the term used in NLP, but I see these things differently and treat them differently, conditioned reflexes, after all, they were studied much earlier and the study and management of human behavior was built on their basis . A person or animal can be given a certain reaction to a certain external stimulus, this will be the so-called indifferent irritation, which in turn will cause excitation in the corresponding receptors, from which the impulses will already go to the brain in the appropriate analyzers.

There is nothing difficult in understanding conditioned reflexes, it is enough to understand that there is some information from the outside, which is associated in an organism with a central nervous system, central nervous system, a person or an animal with a specific type of action on the part of both the stimulus and itself. We encounter conditioned reflexes constantly and everywhere, for example, you can develop a reaction in a person to a certain sound, to a visual stimulus, olfactory and tactile. I will not go into the technical details of a theoretical nature, after all, in the library and on the Internet you can find a lot of information on conditional instincts, but I'd rather give you a few practical recommendations on using this reflex, or it would be more correct to say, on its development, that for you and I are much more important. It is known from Pavlov's experiments that in some of them he used a sound signal as a conditioned stimulus, food as an unconditioned stimulus, and the reaction was salivation in dogs. After the dogs developed a reaction in the form of salivation, a black square appeared in front of the dogs in a short time before the initial stimulus, that is, the second conditioned stimulus.

And after ten such combinations, salivation per square only began to occur with half the intensity. This is called the second order conditioned reflex, the third order conditioned reflex was discovered by Pavlov in cases with a defensive reflex when he used electric shocks. And now let's try to compare this whole chain of actions and reactions to external stimuli with our human life, in which we call conditioned reflexes our habits as well. To what extent can a modern person do something in this life, fully thinking through each step? This is a rarity, friends, I assure you of this, much more often people act according to the stereotypes that they have accumulated thanks to their life experience and their beliefs, and therefore, the mass of external stimuli that affect these people activate their conditioned reflexes, and we In this case, we observe relatively primitive behavior and not well-thought-out actions that can be called reasonable, adequate. Habit my friends, this is your conditioned reflex, and any habit can be developed if it is trained in the same way that Pavlov achieved salivation in dogs just by showing a black square.

For example, they treat recruits in the same way in the army, where it is extremely important to make organized fighters out of an unruly herd, acting in a certain way under certain conditions, which is why they say that smart soldiers are not needed in the army. In principle, training animals and training a person is not much different, because our central nervous system is the same, and the difference in intellectual development is almost imperceptible, because, as I said, most people rely on previously gained experience and have a ready-made algorithm of actions for each case. Needless to say, when a non-standard situation arises, many begin to panic, because they have a protective reflex when they just need to save themselves, because they don’t know what to do. It is extremely important to find the patterns of all your actions that occur exclusively after certain external stimuli, and those that are not relevant, of course, must be revised. Another example is a situation in which it is very difficult for people to find a new job, because they are just used to the old one, it can be terrible and low-paid, but they are used to it, and they don’t need anything else.

It is the same with fears, which have no meaning at all, and yet people react precisely reflexively to most dangerous situations, often only aggravating the situation. Conditioned reflexes are used in relation to people, starting from childhood, when children do something wrong, something that adults simply do not like, then violence, physical or moral, is used against them. The child may not understand why it is impossible to do certain things, which, by the way, may negatively affect his further development, it is undesirable to leave questions unanswered, but he knows that this cannot be done, because they will be punished for it. Just as Pavlov used electric shocks on his experimental animals, forcing them to act according to the algorithm he needed, they do the same with a person, using violence against him. And it works perfectly, in principle, only beliefs can be an alternative to the development of conditioned reflexes through violence, but they are not applicable to everyone. Take a look at your life as if from the outside, try to act outside the box in a standard situation, and try to understand why you always react in a certain way to external stimuli, whether your algorithm of actions suits you, or maybe they suit your actions more than someone else ?

There is such a concept as training and there is such a concept as training, in the first case, work can be carried out with your consciousness, which studies and learns, if you only learn without cramming and stupidly memorizing. But in cases with training, we are talking about developing certain reactions, the meaning and relevance of which you may not understand at all, but you know that it is necessary to act this way and not otherwise. These are conditioned reflexes, there is a situation, there is a variant of your actions in case of its occurrence, and here a person is not much different from animals, and therefore often acts primitively. Now look at our education, how much it looks like training and how much it looks like training, for me it is training, or even training, it is most of all. If a person is forced to remember, and not to understand, this is training, this is programming, if you like, template thinking, template lifestyle, template reactions and behavior.

Of course, such a person responds well to the conditions of society, but often this person is an instrument in the hands of those who really understand, who do not react, do not act reflexively, but creatively approach each new situation, each new problem. At the same time, such an approach can only be in relation to one’s own behavior and actions, while in relation to other people it is possible and even necessary to act in a standard way, for them it is standard, they paint exactly the picture that they should see according to your plans. For someone, a black square will be a word, for someone it will be money, or it may be a bottle of vodka. In the vast majority of people, it is possible to develop a conditioned reflex of social utility, that is, a reflex that will be of interest to you, but not to him, not to this person. And this can be done by getting a person interested in something that may be interesting for him, taking into account the peculiarities of his character, in other words, everyone needs something and you can play on it. It is necessary to create such conditions for a person, using for this purpose the necessary external stimuli, under which he will be useful to you, and not harmful, under which he will be your friend and not an enemy. And you, in principle, can see all this in every person, if you just take a closer look at the behavior of the people around you. Each of us can be turned on by something, so to speak, each of us can be stimulated in a certain way.

As an example, I can also cite the situation with women who will only have to say a few kind words at a certain moment, and any of them will be yours, maybe not for long, but still, and she will not need any gold and diamonds, you will not need to buy her. Only now, in order to control the conditioned reflexes of other people, in order to develop them in the way you need, you yourself must not be a victim of unconscious behavior, not follow your central nervous system, and act according to the template that is in your database in your head.

Higher nervous activity (HNI)

Higher nervous activity (HNA) is a complex and interrelated set of nervous processes that underlie human behavior. GNI ensures maximum adaptability of a person to environmental conditions.

GNI is based on complex electrical and chemical processes occurring in the cells of the cerebral cortex of the cerebral hemispheres. Receiving information through the sense organs, the brain ensures the interaction of the body with the environment and maintains the constancy of the internal environment in the body.

The study of higher nervous activity is based on the works of I.M. Sechenov - "Reflexes of the brain", I.P. Pavlova (the theory of conditioned and unconditioned reflexes), P.K. Anokhin (the theory of functional systems) and numerous other works.

Features of higher nervous activity of a person:

• developed mental activity;
• speech;
• ability to abstract-logical thinking.

The foundation for the creation of the doctrine of higher nervous activity was laid by the works of the great Russian scientists I.M. Sechenov and I.P. Pavlova.

Ivan Mikhailovich Sechenov in his book "Reflexes of the Brain" proved that a reflex is a universal form of interaction between the body and the environment, that is, not only involuntary, but also voluntary, conscious movements have a reflex character. They begin with irritation of any sense organs and continue in the brain in the form of certain neural phenomena, leading to the launch of behavioral reactions.

A reflex is a response of the body to irritation that occurs with the participation of the nervous system.

THEM. Sechenov argued that the reflexes of the brain include three links:

• The first, initial link is the excitation in the sense organs caused by external influences.
• The second, central link is the processes of excitation and inhibition occurring in the brain. On their basis, mental phenomena arise (sensations, ideas, feelings, etc.).
• The third, final link is the movements and actions of a person, that is, his behavior. All these links are interconnected and condition each other.

Sechenov concluded that the brain is an area of ​​continuous change of excitation and inhibition. These two processes constantly interact with each other, which leads to both strengthening and weakening (delay) of reflexes. He also drew attention to the existence of innate reflexes that people get from their ancestors, and acquired ones that arise during life, being the result of training. The assumptions and conclusions of I. M. Sechenov were ahead of their time.

The successor of the ideas of I.M. Sechenov became I.P. Pavlov.

All reflexes that occur in the body, Ivan Petrovich Pavlov divided into unconditioned and conditional.

Unconditioned reflexes

Unconditioned reflexes are inherited by offspring from parents, persist throughout the life of the organism and are reproduced from generation to generation ( constant). They are characteristic of all individuals of a certain species, i.e. group.

In unconditioned reflexes permanent reflex arcs that pass through the brain stem or through the spinal cord (for their implementation optional participation of the cortexcerebral hemispheres).

There are food, defensive, sexual and indicative unconditioned reflexes.

• food: separation of digestive juices in response to irritation of the receptors of the oral cavity, swallowing, sucking movements in a newborn.
• defensive: withdrawal of a hand that touched a hot object or with painful irritation, coughing, sneezing, blinking, etc.
• Sexual: the process of reproduction is associated with sexual reflexes.
• indicative(I.P. Pavlov called it the “what is it?” reflex) provides the perception of an unfamiliar stimulus. The orienting reflex appears in response to a new stimulus: a person is alert, listens, turns his head, squints his eyes, thinks.

Thanks to unconditioned reflexes, the integrity of the organism is preserved, the constancy of its internal environment is maintained, and reproduction occurs.

A complex chain of unconditioned reflexes is called instinct.

Example:

A mother feeds and protects her child, birds build nests - these are examples of instincts.

Conditioned reflexes

Along with hereditary (unconditional) there are reflexes that are acquired by each person throughout life. Such reflexes individual, and certain conditions are necessary for their formation, so they were called conditional.

Conditioned and unconditioned reflexes are characteristic of the entire animal world.

In biology, they are considered as the result of a long evolutionary process and represent the response of the central nervous system to external environmental influences.

They provide a very fast response to a particular stimulus, which significantly saves the resources of the nervous system.

Classification of reflexes

In modern science, such reactions are described using several classifications that describe their features in different ways.

So, they are of the following types:

1. Conditional and unconditional - depending on how they are formed.
2. Exteroreceptive (from "extra" - external) - reactions of external receptors of the skin, hearing, smell and vision. Interoreceptive (from "intero" - inside) - reactions of internal organs and systems. Proprioceptive (from "proprio" - special) - reactions associated with the sensation of one's own body in space and formed by the interaction of muscles, tendons and joints. This is a classification by type of receptor.
3. According to the type of effectors (zones of a reflex response to information collected by receptors), there are: motor and vegetative.
4. Classification based on a specific biological role. Allocate species aimed at protection, nutrition, orientation in the environment and reproduction.
5. Monosynaptic and polysynaptic - depending on the complexity of the neural structure.
6. According to the type of influence, excitatory and inhibitory reflexes are distinguished.
7. And according to where the reflex arcs are located, they distinguish cerebral (various parts of the brain are included) and spinal (spinal cord neurons are included).

What is a conditioned reflex

This is a term denoting a reflex formed as a result of the fact that at the same time for a long time a stimulus that does not cause any reaction is presented with the stimulus that causes some specific unconditioned reflex. That is, the reflex response as a result extends to an initially indifferent stimulus.

Where are the centers of conditioned reflexes located?

Since this is a more complex product of the nervous system, the central part of the neural arc of conditioned reflexes is located in the brain, and specifically in the cerebral cortex.

Examples of conditioned reflexes

The most striking and classic example is Pavlov's dog. The dogs were presented with a piece of meat (this caused the secretion of gastric juice and salivation) along with the inclusion of a lamp. As a result, after a while, the process of activating digestion started when the lamp was turned on.

A familiar example from life is the feeling of cheerfulness from the smell of coffee. Caffeine does not yet directly affect the nervous system. He is outside the body - in a circle. But the feeling of cheerfulness is turned on only from the smell.

Many mechanical actions and habits are also examples. They rearranged the furniture in the room, and the hand reaches in the direction where the closet used to be. Or the cat that runs to the bowl when it hears the rustle of the food box.

The difference between unconditioned reflexes and conditioned

They differ in that the unconditional are innate. They are the same for all animals of one species or another, as they are inherited. They are quite invariable throughout the life of a person or animal. From birth and always occur in response to receptor irritation, and are not produced.

Conditionals are acquired during life, with experience in interaction with the environment. Therefore, they are quite individual - depending on the conditions under which it was formed. They are fickle throughout life and can die out if they are not reinforced.

Conditioned and unconditioned reflexes - comparative table

The difference between instincts and unconditioned reflexes

An instinct, like a reflex, is a biologically significant form of animal behavior. Only the second is a simple short response to a stimulus, and instinct is a more complex activity that has a specific biological purpose.

The unconditioned reflex is always triggered. But instinct is only in a state of biological readiness of the body and start this or that behavior. For example, mating behavior in birds only kicks in at certain times of the year, when chick survival can be at its maximum.

What is not characteristic of unconditioned reflexes

In short, they cannot change throughout life. Do not differ in different animals of the same species. They cannot disappear or stop appearing in response to a stimulus.

When conditioned reflexes fade

Extinction occurs as a result of the fact that the stimulus (stimulus) ceases to coincide in time of presentation with the stimulus that caused the reaction. They need reinforcements. Otherwise, without being reinforced, they lose their biological significance and fade away.

Unconditioned reflexes of the brain

These include the following types: blinking, swallowing, vomiting, indicative, balance maintenance associated with hunger and satiety, inhibition of movement in inertia (for example, with a push).

Violation or disappearance of any of these types of reflexes can be a signal of serious disorders in the brain.

Pulling your hand away from a hot object is an example of what kind of reflex

An example of a pain reaction is pulling your hand away from a hot kettle. It's an unconditional view, response of the body to the dangerous effects of the environment.

Blink reflex - conditioned or unconditioned

Blinking reaction is an unconditioned species. It occurs as a result of dryness of the eye and to protect against mechanical damage. All animals and humans have it.

Salivation in a person at the sight of a lemon - what a reflex

This is a conditional view. It is formed because the rich taste of lemon provokes salivation so often and strongly that as a result of simply looking at it (and even remembering it), a response is triggered.

How to develop a conditioned reflex in a person

In humans, unlike animals, a conditional view is developed faster. But for all the mechanism is the same - the joint presentation of incentives. One, causing an unconditioned reflex, and the other - indifferent.

For example, for a teenager who fell off a bicycle to some particular music, later unpleasant feelings arising to the same music may become the acquisition of a conditioned reflex.

What is the role of conditioned reflexes in the life of an animal

They enable an animal with rigid, unchanging unconditional reactions and instincts to adapt to conditions that are constantly changing.

At the level of the whole species, this is an opportunity to live in the largest possible areas with different weather conditions, with different levels of food supply. In general, they make it possible to react flexibly and adapt to the environment.

Conclusion

Unconditioned and conditioned responses are essential to the survival of the animal. But it is in interaction that they allow to adapt, multiply and grow the most healthy offspring.