Psychophysiology is the science of the physiological foundations of behavior and mental activity. This article provides basic information about it. You will learn the history of its occurrence, features of the methodology, its significance, as well as some other important information about this science.
Psychophysiology is a special section of psychology and physiology, which studies the role of biological factors (these include the properties of the nervous system) in ensuring mental activity. Scientists distinguish differential psychophysiology, speech and thinking, sensations and perceptions, attention, emotions, arbitrary actions. Currently, all these areas of knowledge are being actively developed.
The cause of psychophysiology
Today, the question of what relations psychology and physiology are in is still open. It is impossible to say unequivocally that the first is part of the second or the second is the first. However, the fact that mental and physiological processes are parts of one psychophysical whole is not subject to doubt. It is also undoubted that the ideas about this whole, which are so necessary for practical purposes, cannot be obtained separately either by physiology or psychology. It was to satisfy the need for knowledge about a person as a whole, and not from purely corporate or organizational considerations, and a new branch of biology appeared, called psychophysiology. This science considers a very wide range of issues. The difficulty level of the problems she studies is much higher than that of psychology or physiology separately.
Interdisciplinarity of psychophysiology, probabilistic methodology
Psychophysiology is a field of knowledge that is multidisciplinary. She considers the organization of relations of probabilistic psychic, physical and spiritual phenomena and human essences. Psychophysiology is a discipline that, for effective cognition, uses a combination of principles, premises, means and methods of cognition that allow scientists to explore a specific object, which is a person. Thus, a probabilistic methodology is applied. It is necessary to say a few words about her.
Psychophysiology is a science that studies a person using a probabilistic methodology. The beginning of the latter was laid back in 1867 by the English physicist James Clerk Maxwell. Probabilistic methodology claims to be universal in science. Maxwell is the first scientist to apply her methods to characterize probabilistic physical reality. This researcher is considered the creator of statistical physics. Probabilistic methodology has one important advantage over the deterministic (traditional) one. It gives a much more complete knowledge about the object being investigated.
The creation of psychophysiology
Officially, it took shape in the middle of the 19th century. Recognized by its creator is A.R. Luria, an outstanding Russian scientist (pictured above). Having a double education (psychological and neurological), he was able to combine the most important achievements of these disciplines into a single whole. The result of this work was the combination of psychophysiology and neuropsychology.
For a long time it was considered that the soul is incorporeal. In other words, the brain has nothing to do with it. Later, scientists began to place mental functions in the three ventricles of the brain. Moreover, each of the ventricles was considered a place of storage of the displayed impressions of the soul. It was believed that she is the abode of ideal images. The brain, on the other hand, was seen as an organ from which vital energy, under the influence of the will, flows into parts of our body through special channels called nerves.
In the future, thanks to the works of various scientists, mainly domestic (I.M.Sechenov, I.P. Pavlov, P. Ya. Halperin, A.N. Leontyev, A.R. Luria, N.A. Bernshtein, etc. ), a fairly clear idea was made of what significance the central nervous system (central nervous system) has for the human psyche.
Natural Science Method Sechenova
I.M.Sechenov developed a special natural-scientific method. Its essence can be defined by the following two principles:
- all kinds of mental phenomena are a product of the central nervous system, which means that they obey the laws by which other natural phenomena develop;
- it is necessary to adhere to the principle of historicism in the study of the psyche, that is, to go from the lower forms of its activity to the higher, from simple to complex, from studying the animal psyche to studying its specificity in humans.
Sechenov, applying these principles, approached the creation of a materialist theory of reflection.
The work of I.P. Pavlov and further research
In the works of I.P. Pavlov, a famous Russian physiologist, reflex theory was further developed. This scientist first used an objective method for studying the mental functions of the brain, which was a conditioned reflex. Taking it into service, Pavlov investigated physiological mechanisms in a number of processes that form the basis of elementary mental reactions. The works of this scientist, as well as representatives of his school, have opened a new horizon in the study of brain activity experimentally.
Later, electrophysiological studies, supplemented by the method of conditioned reflexes, helped establish the fact that many processes of the psyche are based on a certain functional organization in the structures of the brain. For example, one can consider memory as a result of the process of circulation of excitations along the chains of neurons that are closed, with further fixation of certain changes at the molecular level.
Emotions depend on how active certain centers are located in the subcortical structures of the brain. Currently, many mental reactions are reproduced artificially. For this, the parts of the brain responsible for them are especially irritated. On the other hand, on the brain, as well as on the whole organism, everything is reflected that deeply affects our psyche. So, depression or grief can cause psychosomatic (bodily) diseases. Hypnosis can help cure or cause somatic disorders. Witchcraft or violation of the "taboo" among primitive peoples can even kill a person.
The object of cognition and the subject of psychophysiology
General psychophysiology is the science of the vital functions of a healthy person. The clinical one (described in more detail at the end of the article) studies sick people.
Man, as you know, is three-apostate. Psychophysiology is a science that takes into account all levels of its organization. Man has the unity of the following three probabilistic entities:
- bodily (physical, carnal);
- mental (mental);
- spiritual.
Therefore, the subject of psychophysiology is the physical, mental and spiritual essence of man in their interdependence and interconnection. This discipline, thanks to the success of studying the activity of animal brain neurons, as well as in connection with the possibility of clinical examination of people, began to consider not only physiological, but also neural mechanisms of various mental states, processes and behavior. Modern psychophysiology deals, among other things, with the study of neural networks and individual neurons. This is determined by the existing tendency to integrate various disciplines that study the functioning of the brain (neurochemistry, neurophysiology, neuropsychology, psychophysiology, molecular biology, etc.) into a single neuroscience.
The various branches of the discipline we are interested in have their own subject. Physiological psychophysiology, for example, examines the patterns of behavior and mental response, which depend on the state of physiological parameters, the rate of reactions of the peripheral and central nervous systems, as well as the soma as a whole (at the systemic, tissue and cellular levels).
The value of discipline
The discipline that interests us supplements psychology, neurology, psychiatry, pedagogy, and linguistics. Psychophysiology is the necessary link with which the human psyche is considered in its entirety, including many complex forms of behavior, which remained studied before its occurrence.
For example, if you know which stages of ontogenesis are most sensitive to certain pedagogical influences, then you can influence the development of very important physiological and psychophysiological functions, such as memory, thinking, attention, perception, motor activity, mental and physical performance, etc. If you have an idea of the age-related characteristics of the child’s body, you can best reveal its physical and mental abilities, develop sound, valeological and hygienic, from the point of view of science nical requirements for recreational and educational work, to organize the mode of the day, motor activity and nutrition, appropriate individual constitutional characteristics and age. In other words, pedagogical influences can be optimal and effective only when they take into account the age characteristics of the child and adolescent, the capabilities of his body.
Age physiology and psychophysiology
Age-related physiology is a science that explores the features of life and the development of the body during ontogenesis. She studies the functions of the body as a whole, the systems of organs and individual organs as they grow, the uniqueness of these functions at different age stages.
Ontogenesis is the central concept of such a discipline as age-related physiology. It was introduced back in 1866 by E. Haeckel. Nowadays, ontogenesis means the individual development of the organism throughout its life (from the moment of conception to death).
Age physiology and psychophysiology took shape relatively recently. The first stood out only in the second half of the last century. Embryology is a science that explores the features and patterns of the body at the stages of fetal development. Later stages, from maturity to old age, are considered by gerontology.
Age-related physiology uses various research methods, among which are the morphological characteristics of the body (its length, weight, waist and chest circumference, girth of the thigh, shoulder, etc.). This discipline is one of the sections of developmental biology - a very wide area of knowledge.
Features of human ontogenesis
The origin of man has influenced the features of his ontogenesis. In the early stages, it has a certain similarity with the ontogenesis characteristic of higher primates. However, the specificity of man is that it is a social being. This left an imprint on its ontogenesis. First of all, the period of childhood has increased. This is due to the fact that a person needs to learn a social program during training. In addition, the period of fetal development has increased. Puberty in humans occurs later than in higher primates. The periods of growth leap, as well as the transition to old age, are clearly distinguished, in contrast to these animals. Our total life expectancy is greater than that of higher primates.
Age norm and pace of development
It is very important for both the teacher and the doctor to understand the level of development of the child with whom they work. Age-related physiology and psychophysiology determine what is considered the norm, and what is a deviation from it. Any significant deviation in development means the need to apply to a person non-standard methods of treatment and education. Therefore, one of the most important tasks of developmental psychology is the establishment of parameters that determine the age norm.
It should be noted that the pace of development does not always correlate with its final level. Slowing down this process often leads to a person (although later than his peers) achieving outstanding abilities. On the contrary, often accelerated development ends too soon. As a result of this, a person who first showed great promise in adulthood does not achieve high results.
Relatively rarely, there are strong deviations in the rates of development and growth. However, small variations, which are manifested in a moderate lead or lag, are common. How should you relate to them? Are these manifestations of deviations in development or its variability? Age-related physiology provides an answer to these and other questions. She develops criteria to judge the degree of deviation from the norm and the need for measures to eliminate or mitigate the consequences.
Clinical Psychophysiology
It is an important applied field of psychophysiology. This is an interdisciplinary field of knowledge, which examines the physiological mechanisms of various changes in mental activity during somatic and mental pathology, as well as their influence on each other.
Clinical psychophysiology is a discipline that also involves the study of pathogenetic mechanisms, etiological factors, professional rehabilitation and treatment of psychosomatic diseases. She can not do without the knowledge and methods of a number of related disciplines (neurochemistry, neurophysiology, experimental psychology, neuropsychology, neuroradiology, etc.). Through field examinations and laboratory experiments, it is possible to find out how human behavior and experience affect regulatory processes and physiological reactions. From this we can deduce the laws of psychosomatic relations.
As a rule, the measured psychophysiological values are recorded non-invasively on the surface of the human body (as a result of the activity of the functional systems of the body). Sensors measure their physical properties. These sensors register and at the same time amplify the determined indicators, due to which the obtained values can be converted into biosignals. Based on this method, the researchers conclude what somatic processes underlie this or that phenomenon, and their dynamics during the impact of psychotherapy.
So, psychophysiology is a science, the definition of which is presented at the beginning of the article. We talked about its subject, method, history of origin and development, as well as about some important branches. Psychophysiology is a science that studies both the psyche and physiology of a person, so it has an interdisciplinary nature.