PC. Anokhin wrote: “For a neurophysiologist, the problem of the psyche has become a kind of “strength meter.” Only by expressing his attitude to this problem does a neurophysiologist find his place in the stream of research thought and more clearly outline the prospects for his future work” [5].
Mental activity is an integral component of human life. Nevertheless, in modern scientific literature there is no holistic understanding of it, since various manifestations of mental activity are often artificially isolated and considered separately.
Most modern authors consider mental activity from the perspective of the widespread reflex theory, in which the leading role is given to external stimuli. However, any reflex, according to the classical reflex theory, is formed on the basis of a reflex arc and ends with a reflected action
“mental activity”
means .
In recent years, the concept of “mental activity” has increasingly been replaced by the term “cognitive activity.” Such a substitution is hardly legal, since cognitive activity is only a part of mental activity. As a rule, cognitive activity includes the processes of cognition, learning, memory and sometimes thinking; in the mental, along with the indicated processes, there are processes of perception, sensation, emotions, motivations, ideas or imagination, memorization, recollection and forgetting. Various manifestations of cognitive activity are sometimes artificially isolated from the holistic integrative mental activity, and in general such ideas can be viewed as a tribute to reductionism.
Mental activity, being closely related to the external and, in humans, to the social environment, is essentially a reflection of the activity of the brain. Moreover, it can manifest itself in behavior, expressed in verbal and written form, but can be carried out without external expression.
New ideas about the organization of mental activity in humans and animals are presented by the theory of functional systems of the body
, formulated by P.K. Anokhin [3, 7, 25].
Functional systems are dynamic, self-organizing and self-regulating central-peripheral structures, all of whose constituent elements are cooperatively combined to achieve adaptive results that are beneficial for the system itself and the organism as a whole. From this definition it is clear that in the theory of functional systems a system-forming factor is clearly defined, providing a variety of adaptive reactions of the body at all levels - from metabolic reactions to behavioral and mental activity, satisfying the needs of living beings and determining their purposeful activity.
In the whole organism there are many interconnected and interacting functional systems at the metabolic, homeostatic, behavioral and mental levels.
The adaptive results of the activity of functional systems are constantly assessed by their special centers with the help of feedback afferentation coming from the corresponding receptors. Thus, functional systems operate based on the principle of self-regulation. It is important to emphasize that self-regulating functional systems at the homeostatic and metabolic levels are included in the activity of the brain (Fig. 1).
Figure 1. Diagram of a functional system that combines internal (homeostatic) and external (behavioral) links of self-regulation. The internal link ensures the maintenance of an optimal level of homeostasis for life. The external link, based on a systemically organized central architectonics, determines the subject’s achievement of a mental and behavioral result that satisfies an internal need. PA - triggering afferentation. OA - situational afferentation. Consequently, human mental activity is determined by the functions of not only the brain, but also the body as a whole.
In connection with the above-mentioned reflex theory of mental activity, it should be noted that, in contrast to reflex activity, any functional system is not limited to actions, but is always aimed at achieving adaptive results that satisfy one or another need of the body. Reflex arcs of various mental level reflexes unfold on the basis of a previous or newly organized functional system dominant in the body, formed by one or another need of the body. Reflex mechanisms, resulting only in the response of subjects to the action of stimuli, are only an integral part of functional systems [6].
Systemic cerebral architectonics of mental activity
The cerebral architectonics of mental activity, in accordance with the theory of functional systems, includes sequentially replacing nodal mechanisms: afferent synthesis, decision-making and anticipation of the result that satisfies the leading initial mental or metabolic need - the acceptor of the result of the action, efferent synthesis and constant assessment of the achieved results by the acceptor of the results by comparison reverse afferentation from the parameters of the achieved results with the mechanisms of the acceptor of the result of the action.
The initial stage of any mental act is the stage of afferent synthesis
. At this stage, the dominant motivation arising on the basis of mental or metabolic needs constantly interacts on the neurons of the brain with afferentation entering the central nervous system from the action of situational and special triggering factors on the body, as well as with memory mechanisms. At the stage of afferent synthesis, which is carried out according to the dominant principle [28], such an important mechanism of mental activity as decision making is formed.
Decision-making
determines the restriction of freedom of activity of subjects and orients their mental activity in the direction of satisfying the dominant motivation that has developed at the stage of afferent synthesis.
After making a decision, mental activity can be limited to purely cerebral neurodynamic information executive processes of thinking or include active human activity aimed at satisfying the dominant initial need. But before this, the apparatus for foreseeing the properties of the desired result and the methods leading to its achievement is activated - the acceptor of the result of the action.
Action Result Acceptor
is formed in functional systems of mental activity, on the one hand, on a genetic basis, on the other, its mechanisms become more complex in the process of training subjects with multiple interactions with environmental factors. When the body and, first of all, its receptors are affected by various environmental factors that satisfy or do not satisfy its initial mental needs, multiple streams of afferent excitations arise (reverse afferentation), which spread to the central nervous system and are imprinted on the structures of the apparatus of the acceptor of the result of the action, participating in reinforcement processes.
Systemic quantization of mental activity
In 1983, the author of this article [26] postulated the principle of systemic quantization of life processes, which can be extended to the construction of mental activity.
The principle of systemic quantization of mental activity is that the continuum of activity of various functional systems of the mental level is divided into separate discrete segments - systemoquants: from mental need to its satisfaction. Each system quantum of a person’s mental activity includes an initial metabolic and mental need formed on its basis, including the dominant motivation, as well as behavior aimed at satisfying the initial need, intermediate and final results of this activity, constantly assessed by subjects using reverse afferentation in terms of satisfaction, or, on the contrary, dissatisfaction of the original need, i.e. achieving a beneficial adaptive result for the subject.
In the construction of system-quanta of human mental activity, the leading role belongs to the two extreme components of the systemic cerebral architectonics of the corresponding functional systems - dominant motivation and reinforcement.
Systemic quantization of mental activity is carried out according to the principle of self-regulation due to the constant assessment by the subject (his acceptor of the result of the action using reverse afferentation) of intermediate (stage) and final results. If the achieved results and their parameters acting on the body’s receptors, and the resulting reverse afferentation correspond to the properties of the acceptor of the result of the action, satisfy the initial need, the system quantum of mental activity based on positive emotion is completed. A new need forms the next system-quantum of mental activity, etc. In cases where the parameters of the achieved results do not correspond to the properties of the dominant acceptor of the result of the action, a restructuring of afferent synthesis occurs, a new decision is made, correction of the acceptor of the result of the action and mental activity are carried out in the direction of achieving the corrected result.
Systematic quanta of mental activity in a person can also be built under the influence of external influences, preliminary training, instructions or self-instructions. Quantization of human mental activity manifests itself in several varieties: sequential, hierarchical and mixed [21].
Dominant motivation is the basis of mental activity
The leading role in the formation of mental activity belongs to the dominant motivation
.
Motivations are divided into biological (metabolic), herd (in animals) and social (in humans). From the standpoint of the theory of functional systems in the organization of mental activity, motivations play a system-organizing role in mobilizing initially chaotically interacting neurons of the brain into an organized constellation, which determines the readiness of subjects to form orientation-research activities and behavioral satisfaction of their vital needs.
Biological motivations are built on the basis of specific ascending activating influences of the hypothalamic centers on other structures of the brain, in particular the limbic formations, the thalamus, the reticular formation of the brain stem, including the cerebral cortex, especially its frontal regions.
In the complex cortical-subcortical architectonics of biological motivations, a major role belongs to the motivational centers of the hypothalamus. The destruction of these centers completely eliminates their activating influence on the brain structures that determine the corresponding biological motivations and the purposeful activity generated by them [24]. In humans, pacemakers of social motivation are located in the frontal cortex of the cerebral hemispheres [12, 27].
At any given moment in time, the brain is taken over by the dominant socially or biologically motivated motivation, which is organized by the most significant need in terms of survival or adaptation of subjects to the environment. The rest, subdominant motivations support the dominant one or are inhibited. After satisfying the leading needs, they, in turn, can become dominant in a hierarchical order.
Our special experiments indicate that dominant motivations significantly change the general properties of the brain. At the same time, the convergent and discriminatory properties of individual brain neurons in relation to various sensory influences increase: their sensitivity to neurotransmitters, neuropeptides and other biologically active substances changes. The sensitivity of brain neurons to the action of reinforcing factors—those that satisfy the corresponding need—is significantly expanded. With motivation, the expression of early genes c-fos and c-jun increases in many brain structures. In addition, dominant motivation increases the sensitivity of the corresponding peripheral receptors [34]. Dominant motivations thus purposefully change the properties of brain structures and corresponding peripheral receptors that perceive external influences, selectively tuning them to perceive and interact with factors that satisfy the needs underlying these motivations. The dominant motivation finds a clear manifestation in the activity of individual neurons of the brain in the form of a pattern of interpulse intervals specific for each motivation [24]. In addition, with motivation, reverberant relationships develop between the cortex and subcortical structures of the brain, likely contributing to the prolongation of intense activity.
A person’s social motivations significantly change the nature of his biological motivations, giving them a social connotation.
Motivation, in turn, is closely related to the key stages of the systemic architectonics of mental acts discussed above - afferent synthesis, decision making and efferent synthesis. But motivation is especially closely connected with the apparatus for predicting results—the acceptor of the results of action. The dominant motivation extracts from it the information parameters of the initial need, and proactively - the ways, means of achieving and parameters of results that satisfy the initial need. In light of this, the acceptor of action results in the systemic organization of mental acts of humans and animals acts as a unique vector of behavior.
Acceptor of action results in functional systems of mental activity
In accordance with the ideas of P.K. Anokhin, the structural basis of acceptors of action results is made up of interneurons of various parts of the brain, to which copies of effector excitations of pyramidal neurons of the cerebral cortex, formed by dominant motivation, conditioned stimuli and memory mechanisms, are distributed along the collaterals of the pyramidal tract (Fig. 2).
Figure 2. Scheme of the formation of a multi-level acceptor of the result of an action on brain structures and its extraction by the dominant motivation. 1 - under the influence of the dominant motivation (M), through the collaterals of the pyramidal tract, a system of interneurons located at different levels of the brain is excited - an acceptor of the result of the action; 2 - in the center, under the influence of various parameters of the achieved results, a reinforcement engram is formed on the interneurons; 3 - the dominant motivation proactively activates the reinforcement engram. Due to the presence between intercalary neurons united in the apparatus of the acceptor of the result of an action, cyclic interrelations of excitation in these neurons based on reverberation mechanisms can be maintained for a long time. This, in turn, allows them to remain in an excited state for a long time and, thanks to this, under the influence of the dominant motivation, continuously evaluate the incoming feedback from various parameters of the results achieved by the subjects.
Confirmation of the spread of excitations of the pyramidal tract to the interneurons that make up the acceptor of the result of an action was obtained by us in special experiments on animals, in which the reactions of interneurons in various areas of the brain were studied using the microelectrode method in response to antidromic stimulation of the central end of the pyramidal tract cut at the level of the olives of the medulla oblongata.
During antidromic stimulation of the pyramidal tract, interneuron responses were recorded in the somatosensory and visual cortex and in the dorsal hippocampus. These same neurons clearly responded to stimuli of various sensory modalities presented to animals, as well as to stimulation of motivational centers of the hypothalamus [26]. This indicates the widespread distribution of antidromic excitations of the pyramidal tract along its collaterals to various brain structures and the interaction of motivational and sensory excitations of various modalities on these neurons. Along with this, it has been established that the neurons that make up the acceptors of action results also respond to reinforcing influences [18].
When the initial need is satisfied, the properties of the neurons initially involved in the dominant motivation change. In this case, the burst-like activity of these neurons changes to regular [1]. This indicates that a close interaction of motivational and reinforcing excitations occurs on the structures of acceptors of action results.
According to the mechanism of reverse afferentation, each parameter of the reinforcing effect leaves its specific trace in the corresponding projection zones of the acceptors of the results of the action, which cover various areas of the cortex and subcortical formations of the brain. As a result, on the corresponding structures of acceptors of action results, in each case an informational structural-functional ensemble of reinforcement is created - its image (“imprint of reality” according to I.P. Pavlov). They can be represented in the form of specific geometric images (Fig. 3).
Figure 3. Geometric images of the action result acceptor in different functional systems. Each figure depends on the reinforcement parameters; M - motivation. PN - pyramidal neuron. 1-6 - parameters of the reinforcing result.
The structures of the acceptors of action results are imprinted by a diverse reality: the place and sequence of events acting on living objects - their connection in time and space, as well as the emotional states that accompany the need and its satisfaction and the parameters of actions that satisfy these needs. As subjects learn from the structures of the acceptor of action results, dynamic programs of mental and behavioral activity are formed. Moreover, if the genetic components of the acceptors of action results are relatively conservative, then in the process of individual life the architectonics of the acceptors of action results constantly changes in accordance with the variability of the parameters of reinforcing influences. Dominant motivations extract acquired experience precisely in the time sequence in which real events were played out earlier during training [26].
As is known, K. Lorenz [33] was the first to discover the phenomenon of imprinting in newborn chicks. He showed that environmental objects that are first presented to newborns are imprinted in their memory and determine the reaction of following these objects. However, K. Lorenz and his followers, in particular N. Tinbergen, did not answer the question: what are the mechanisms of imprinting and how long does this mechanism manifest itself in the ontogenesis of living beings? In 1978, we formulated the imprinting hypothesis of the formation of acceptors of action results. According to it, the property of capturing reality is clearly preserved throughout the subsequent life of individuals and is especially manifested during learning in the process of forming dynamic stereotypes of the brain. Our experiments have shown that images of reinforcing excitations are built with the help of information protein molecules [26], which form molecular engrams. Reinforcement oligopeptides, such as substance P, peptide that induces Δ-sleep, prolactin, β-endorphin, etc., play a significant role in fixing “imprints of reality” [20].
In addition to oligopeptides, immune mechanisms are involved in the processes under consideration.
K. Pribram once assumed that the brain reacts according to the holographic principle. He believed that memory is not localized in certain areas, but is distributed throughout the brain [37]. The interaction of motivational and reinforcing excitations on the structures that make up the acceptor of the results of action, generalized throughout the brain, confirms the holographic mechanism of its activity. By analogy with physical holography, we consider motivational excitations as a reference wave, and excitation from reinforcing factors acting on various receptors of the body as an objective one. We believe that the interference of these two waves, caused by motivation and reinforcement, forms holographic images on the structures of acceptors of action results [22].
Information aspects of mental activity
For more than 300 years, physiology has been building its scientific knowledge on the basis of physicochemical processes. This significant trend will undoubtedly continue in the future. Nevertheless, it is becoming increasingly clear that, along with physical and chemical processes, life activity is characterized by an informational essence.
Most scientists agree that information permeating the entire universe is a wave process [10, 16, 31].
Researchers consider the connection of information with electromagnetic [16] and longitudinal waves [32]. I.I. Yuzvishin [31], for example, considers information as “a fundamental generalized - a single, beginningless, endless process of resonant-cellular and wave relationship, interaction and mutual preservation.”
In general terms, information is associated with attitude
objects to objects, subjects to objects, subjects to subjects, subjects to populations, etc. And, in addition, it is, of course, connected with its carriers - material physical and chemical processes, their relationships and depends on the energy contained in them.
Information processes in nature, technical devices and social relations in the twentieth century were the subject of scientific research by a number of outstanding scientists [8, 13, 29, 31, 38], who attracted the attention of natural scientists to the information side of life. So, V.I. Korogodin [11], V.I. Loschilov [13] rightly noted that information is closely related to the systemic processes of life.
Information processes are clearly manifested in the work of functional systems at the mental level of the organization.
In the process of forming needs, information initially appears as a relationship
deviation of the adaptive result value to the value of its optimal level for life activity. Therefore, in each functional system, along with physical and chemical processes, information about the initial need and its satisfaction constantly circulates. At the same time, despite the change in physicochemical and physiological carriers, information about the need, as well as its satisfaction, remains unchanged. In each self-regulating functional system, the successive transformations of information processes into physico-chemical ones and vice versa are clearly visible.
Information in functional systems that determine human behavior and mental activity arises primarily as the ratio of the homeostatic indicator regulated by them to the results of mental and behavioral activity. It is generated by the relationship of physiological processes occurring both within functional systems and between them.
Considering the information side of the systemic organization of behavioral acts by D.N. Menitsky [14] divided the parameters of reinforcement into semantic (informational) and pragmatic (motivational) components, and A.M. Ivanitsky [9], formulated ideas about information synthesis. However, earlier P.K. Anokhin (1969) introduced the concept of “information equivalent of a result.” On this occasion, he wrote: “In information theory, there is an idea of the accuracy of the transmission of information about any object, regardless of recoding... This means that the process of information, no matter at what level of transmission we catch it, fundamentally contains everything that constitutes the most characteristic features of the original object, however, these features can be represented in different codes. I would call these stages of information transfer the information equivalent of an object” [4]. Under the information equivalent of the object P.K. Anokhin understood the transfer of information about the properties of an object in various links in living organisms and technical devices without its loss despite the change of physical and chemical carriers up to and including the final link in receiving information. Formulated by P.K. Anokhin’s concept of the information equivalent of an object is fundamental for the information activity of functional systems at the mental level of an organization.
Developing these ideas, we formulated the idea of the information equivalent of the need and the information equivalent of the result.
The cerebral architectonics of functional systems that carry out human mental and behavioral activity, built on a morphofunctional material basis, at the same time represents the dynamics of information processes playing out on the structures of the brain.
These processes include the transformation of the leading need into motivational arousal, the transformation of motivation into the activity of an acceptor of the results of an action and into behavior, and, finally, the transformation of reinforcing influences into the activity of an acceptor of the result of an action, which in turn has reverse information influences on the processes of afferent synthesis. All these processes at each stage of the systemic organization of mental activity are played out without losing the informational meaning of the original need and its satisfaction. In these processes, along with the impulse activity of neurons, a significant role is played by information molecules - DNA, RNA, liquid media and biologically active substances, in particular oligopeptides. Some oligopeptides transmit information about metabolic needs to the neurons of the brain that form the corresponding motivation, others determine the dominance of motivations at the stage of afferent synthesis, others determine the transformation of the dominant motivation into behavior, and others determine the assessment of the results achieved when reverse afferentation enters the brain structures [ 20]. The structural elements of the brain - neurons, synapses, glial cells and brain fluid - act as carriers of information processes.
It is important to note that the dominant motivations acquire the ability to advance information programming of the properties of the required results and methods of achieving them. With the programs of the acceptor of the result of action anticipating real events in the process of mental or behavioral activity of a person, a constant comparison of the achieved results of behavior of mental activity, their evaluation and imprinting is also carried out on an information basis. Information models of the internal environment of the organism and the surrounding reality are thus built on acceptors of action results. The integration of acceptors of the results of the action of individual functional systems forms a single common information holographic screen of the brain.
The informational role of emotions as components of the systemic organization of mental activity
Information assessment of mental activity is primarily associated with subjective emotional sensations associated with the function of the limbic formations of the brain [35]. According to P.K. Anokhin, emotions play the role of a kind of bearings that assess the needs of living beings and their satisfaction and the effect of various external factors on the body, dividing them into useful and harmful [2]. Emotions thus determine the sensory perception of reality.
At the same time, based on repeated satisfaction of the same type of mental needs, a person proactively anticipates both positive and negative emotions.
The informational side of emotions was noted by P.V. Simonov [19] in the need-information theory of emotions he formulated. He wrote: emotion “is a reflection by the brain of humans and higher animals of any actual need (its quality and magnitude) and the probability (possibility) of its satisfaction, which the subject involuntarily evaluates on the basis of innate and previously acquired individual experience” [19]. He emphasized the dependence of the expression of emotion on the strength of the initial need of living beings and the likelihood of its satisfaction.
The emotional component of evaluating effective activity is already formed in 5-month-old human fetuses [15].
Newborn children show their attitude to reality only through emotional reactions of crying or calming, including sleep: when waking up in the absence of parents, the child screams, showing negative emotion; when a food need arises, his negative emotions manifest themselves in crying, screaming and global movements. When the nutritional needs are satisfied (when the mother is breastfeeding), newborns calm down. It is worth it, however, as K.V. showed. Shuleikin [30], instead of a pacifier with milk, give the child a pacifier with lemon water, he immediately spits it out and all his behavior reflects a negative emotional reaction. It is also known that negative emotions are clearly manifested in newborns and during damaging influences (pain, for example, during flatulence or during medical procedures, etc.). As he communicates with the outside world and, first of all, with his parents and the people around him, the child masters and learns their emotional attitude to various external influences, evaluating them as “good or bad.” Subsequently, decisions are also influenced by emotions. Emotions are especially significantly included in the activities of acceptors of the results of the action of various functional systems, in the anticipatory assessment of successful and unsuccessful activities to achieve the required results. In this way, a person’s emotional consciousness is formed when the external and internal world of a person is transformed into specific internal images - a person’s subjective experience of his internal state and environment with the possibility of an appropriate assessment of the latter (including the behavior of other people).
The formation of a child’s emotional consciousness is closely related to the perception of information in the form of verbal stimuli, i.e. with speech function.
In this sense, we can talk about the formation of emotional-verbal consciousness. It is with the help of emotional-verbal consciousness that the child forms an attitude towards himself, his “I”, distinguishing himself as a subject from the world around him. Imprinting on the morphofunctional structures of acceptors the results of the action of emotional states and verbal equivalents of reality, starting from the early postnatal period, forms intelligence, which is enriched throughout the life of individuals. Emotional and verbal acceptors of the results of action allow each individual to adequately assess himself, his needs, accumulated knowledge and the surrounding reality. A person’s verbal assessment of needs and their satisfaction, as well as various external influences on the body, along with emotional sensations, is carried out with the help of linguistic symbols, phrases, verbal constructions of an oral and written nature. This level of thinking requires special training, primarily in language. With the help of linguistic symbols, emotional and verbal functional systems of an ideal, informational level are built in humans on the structures of acceptors of activity results.
In pathology, strong emotional sensations and verbal suggestions can be used to build an attraction to alcohol or drugs.
Emotional states, under certain circumstances, can independently build functional systems. An example of this is experiments with self-irritation of brain structures [36].
Systemic organization of mental activity
From the standpoint of the theory of functional systems, thinking is an internal informational, executive mechanism of dynamic constructions of cerebral architectonics of the systemic organization of mental activity.
Human mental activity can be considered as operating with information processes in the brain, a kind of “behavior” at the information level. Mental activity ends with an informational result—the construction of a thought.
From the standpoint of the general theory of functional systems, the thinking process is built by effective system quanta and includes universal system node components: the system-organizing role of the initial biological and social needs of a person and the dominant motivations formed on their basis, as well as external stimuli in the construction of mental activity; mental result as the leading system-forming factor of mental activity; anticipatory programming of mental activity by the acceptor of the results of actions; finally, the effector expression of thought processes through behavior, somatovegetative components and through a specially organized apparatus of speech. All these processes are continuously evaluated by the acceptor of the results of action using reverse afferentation.
The operational architectonics of mental activity is built on the basis of emotional and verbal equivalents of reality: the information equivalent of needs, motivation, behavior and evaluation of achieved results.
These mechanisms are in a certain sense consonant with the teachings of I.P. Pavlova about the first and second signal systems of reality. However, if the representations of I.P. Pavlov’s ideas were based on the information assessment of signals (conditioned stimuli of a physical and verbal nature), then from the standpoint of the systemic organization of mental activity, the information content of the functional systems of the mental level determines the corresponding adaptive results for human activity. If the results of activity have only physical parameters, then the functional systems of mental activity organized by them are built on information equivalents of the physical properties of these results. If the results of activity have speech, verbal parameters, the corresponding functional systems of mental activity are built on an informational verbal basis.
In humans, the information equivalent of the functional systems of mental activity is connected, as indicated
Your psychologist. The work of a psychologist at school.
Part three. MENTAL ACTIVITY 3.1. Mental processes, states, properties. 3.1. Mental processes, states, properties Mental processes are processes of subjective continuous reflection of objective reality of different modalities, the construction of its multilateral integral mental images (sensations and perception, attention, memory, thinking and speech, emotions and feelings). Mental states are mental processes that take place for a certain time in the same conditions: controlled by one or another need for one or another external opportunity for its implementation by one or another ability in one or another biological cycle of metabolic processes in the body. The main variable parameters of the state are related to a person’s performance (mental, physical, emotional).Mental property is the individual quality of communicative, cognitive, regulatory mental functions, individual aspects of the human psyche, including the quality of his mental processes and the typicality of mental states.
Sensations and perception. Sensation is a cognitive process of mental reflection of individual properties of objects and phenomena during their direct impact on the receptor zones of the analyzers. There are five modalities of sensations (visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory and tactile) and their analyzers. The structure of touch (the so-called haptic function of sensations), based on the specificity of receptors to mechanical influences, is multicomponent. Types of touch: tactile (external pressure on the surface of the body, on its extra-receptors), proprioceptive (stretching the muscles and tendons of the body), introceptive (impact on internal organs): Depending on the content of the stimulus, touch can be temperature, vibration, spatial ( sensation of body position “bottom-up”, “horizontal-vertical” as a function of the semicircular canals of the inner ear). Biological needs (such as hunger) can also manifest as introceptive sensations. As for pain sensations, they arise as a result of excessive force of mechanical stimulation of specific receptors, intensified by the emotional component, as well as mental attitudes of expectation of pain. Fragmentary images of sensations are formed in the primary zones of the central parts of the analyzers (neurons of the brain that are specific in terms of reflection modality). The study of sensations is carried out, as a rule, by methods of distinguishing individual sensitivity thresholds. Perception (perception) is the formation of holistic images of mental reflection from sensations. This is a complex active integrative process associated with memory, thinking, attention, motivation. The adequacy of the subjective nature of the perception of objective reality is checked by the criterion of the adaptive result of practical activity. There are levels of perceptual actions: detection (indicative-exploratory reflex or search activity); discrimination (individual features of an object); identification (identification with a memory image based on the leading feature or essential features); identification (final result). The process of identification consists of categorizing an image - assigning it to one or another class of objects, phenomena and establishing its situational significance or personal value. The properties of perception include objectivity, integrity, structure, constancy, and meaningfulness. The objectivity of perception characterizes it as an act of objectification, in which a person’s attitude to information is established as belonging not to the internal world of the subject, but to the external world, emanating from him. A pathological distortion of the objectivity of perception, the projection of internal images onto the external world and treating them as data from the outside is called a true hallucination. The integrity of perception is based on the generalization of information about the individual properties and characteristics of an object or phenomenon into a multimodal mental image. The modal integrity of the image (visual, auditory, etc. separately) is formed in the secondary zones of the central link of the analyzer, and the multimodal integrity is formed in the tertiary zones of interaction between analyzers of all types of sensations. The integrity of perception is ensured by its structure (the image is not made up of the sum of sensations, but is formed as a result of the integration of sensations into essential features), which is facilitated by the awareness of perception (due to the involvement of thinking) and its constancy (constancy of the image of perception of an object when the conditions of its perception change). Apperception is a process of perception in which sensations are mediated by the counter process of anticipatory reflection due to attitudes, current motives, thanks to the memory of past experience. Apperception can manifest itself as anticipation (predicting the development of events based on initial actions, phenomena), as psychological defense (outward projection of images of one’s own desires, thoughts and feelings, attributing them to others), as illusion (violation of the adaptive adequacy of apperception, distortion of reality due to a strong attitude). The forms of existence of matter formed the basis for another classification: the perception of time, space, motion. Among the methods for studying perception, we note methods for studying the eye, the sense of time, spatial relationships (for example, “Compasses” or “Cubes”), and movement (for example, Zhukovsky’s cinematometer). Perception disorders: illusions, hallucinations. Illusions are distortions of the perception of really existing objects and phenomena. They arise both as a result of the physiological characteristics of normal perception mechanisms (physiological illusions), and as a result of apperception under the influence of superimposition on sensations (visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, gustatory) of a rich imagination, strong motivation, affects, as well as as a result of pathological processes in the brain (psychic illusions). Hallucinations are the appearance of mental images of objects and phenomena that do not objectively exist here and now, but are perceived as a reflection of the real ones. During hallucinations, the leading principle of perception—its objectivity—is violated. Violation of introceptive and proprioceptive touch - the perception of physicality - is defined as paresthesia (painful sensations from organs during pathological processes in them: goosebumps, burning, numbness, etc.), synestopathies (hallucinations of painful sensations), disturbances in the body diagram (size and integral unity of body parts ). Violation of the perception of time and space - derealization. Attention. The mental process of focusing consciousness on the perception of subjectively selective information. Attention, considered as a mental process, differs in types (external - internal, voluntary - involuntary) and is characterized by a number of properties (concentration, volume, switchability, distribution, stability). The individual qualities of the indicated properties of attention constitute the psychological structure of attentiveness, as well as the individual types of attentive, inattentive, and absent-minded people, depending on their selective attitude towards certain aspects of life. Attention, considered as a mental state, is determined by the duration of existence of a certain functional system of activity that realizes the specific need underlying it. The focus of consciousness on objects and phenomena of the external world, on the one hand, or, on the other hand, the focus of self-consciousness on mental processes, states and properties of one’s own inner world determines the distinction between external and internal types of attention. Controlled, supported by consciousness, purpose, will - attention is voluntary. Attention caused by the properties of an object or phenomenon (the strength of the stimulus, its novelty, surprise, attractiveness) is involuntary. Interest in the object of attention, if in the process of activity it replaces motivation associated with volitional effort, underlies the so-called “post-voluntary” attention. Voluntary attention develops during the child’s learning process along with the development of the functions of the frontal lobes of his brain. At first, the adult identifies objects from the environment, denotes them in words, and shows their capabilities through his actions. In this regard, they are then internalized by the child’s psyche as significant, requiring cognition through volitional effort, subordination of the attention previously paid to them by one’s own internal speech instructions. The process of training voluntary attention contributes to the development of strong-willed individual mental properties of responsibility, perseverance, independence, self-control and self-regulation, as well as the cognitive property of observation (the ability to notice subtle signs of a particular phenomenon). Concentration of attention is a focus on one subject of activity, absorption in it, providing high noise immunity to the influence of extraneous stimuli, a characteristic of its intensity. The opposite quality is absent-mindedness. At the same time, we must understand that a person who strongly concentrates his attention on something becomes absent-minded in relation to other objects and phenomena. The span of attention is the simultaneous discrimination of different objects. Normally, the attention span of children is from 2 to 5 objects, adults - up to 7, in exceptional cases - up to 9. The duration of attention fixed on objects is 6.1 seconds. is considered to be the time that determines its volume (insufficient for scanning objects by switching attention). Switching attention is the intentional transfer of voluntary attention from one object to another; distraction is an involuntary transfer of attention. Distribution of attention is the ability to control the execution of several actions or activities simultaneously with attention. The conditions for the distribution of attention are sufficient development of volume and switchable attention, skills in these activities, training, and the automated nature of actions. Sustainability of attention is the duration of maintaining concentrated voluntary attention on the subject of activity. Normally, the duration of fixation of attention on a stationary object is approximately 5 seconds, with active action with an object up to 20 minutes, and with short-term distraction (so-called “paroxysms” of continuous activity physiologically necessary for the body), the optimal duration of monotonous activity is up to 45 minutes. By the beginning of preschool age, a child, as a rule, cannot do the same thing for more than 3 minutes; by the end, for more than 10 minutes. Among the traditional methods for studying the properties of attention, proofreading tests, Schulte-Gorbov tables (concentration, stability, distribution and switching), and tachistoscope (volume) are often used. Memory. The mental process of fixation (memorization), preservation (retention), and reproduction of information. Memorization can be distinctly vivid, capturing details (eidetic); mechanically learned through repetition; mnemonic, using special thinking techniques and associations. The storage of information occurs due to: excitation circulating in the neural structures of the brain; the formation of new neurons from undifferentiated neuroglial cells; connection of neurons by processes (growing in the process of learning, memorization); synthesis of ribonucleic acids (RNA as ontogenetic long-term memory). The reverse process of storage is called forgetting. It can be unconsciously active (for example, during psychological defense) or passive (information not used for a long time) in nature. Reproduction of information occurs as a plot memory, or volitional recall, or a schematic-fragmentary representation. The main function of memory is to ensure the integrity of the individual through the connection of the past, present and future life path of a person. Memory is a necessary mechanism of apperception and thinking. Types of memory are classified: according to the functional support of types of mental activity (motor, sensory, emotional, figurative, verbal-logical); by the duration of information storage (long-term, or secondary, short-term, or primary, and operational); according to the mechanism of activation and maintenance of the memory process (voluntary, functioning with a specific purpose, thanks to volitional efforts, and involuntary, arising unconsciously). The most long-lasting motor (skills) and emotional memory for events that are significant for a person are normally preserved throughout life. Sensory memory (visual-iconic, auditory-echoic, etc.) is short-term: the image of mental perception is retained for no more than a second. Verbal-logical (second-signal) memory is associated with the development of verbal-logical intelligence, and figurative (primary-signal) memory is associated with imaginative thinking. Random access memory (a type of short-term memory) stores information from a previous operation for use in a subsequent operation. Memory research is carried out by methods of memorizing and reproducing experimental material after some time. The experimental material is designed for one or another modality of perception (visual, auditory memory, etc.). The study of figurative memory and its reversibility into verbal-logical memory (coding and recoding of information in the “image-sign” system) is often carried out using the “Pictogram” technique. Memory disorder. Loss of the ability to record or reproduce information (from several days to several years) is called amnesia. Retrograde amnesia is characterized by the inability to remember events that preceded an illness (for example, an epileptic seizure) or a brain injury. Anterograde amnesia occurs in circumstances when, some time after the injury (usually several days after the person regains consciousness), he forgets the events that happened to him all this time. Fixation amnesia means the inability to remember current information (following a concussion, cerebrovascular accident). The state of a sharp improvement in memory up to the reproduction of the smallest details is called hypermnesia and is often observed during hypnosis and manic excitement. Paramnesia (pseudo-reminiscence, confabulation, crypto-homnesia) - erroneous, false memories, memory deceptions. Pseudo-reminiscence is associated with the recall of events that actually happen to a person, but in a different time or place. Cryptomnesia is a memory in which there are no boundaries between what actually happened to a person and what he once heard or saw in connection with events that concern other people, but which he mistakenly attributed to himself, filling the gaps in memory ( cryptomnesia translates as hidden memory). Often cryptomnesia takes on the character of confabulation (senile, infectious psychoses) - an unconscious invention of unlikely plots, sometimes fantastic events, in which the patient was allegedly a participant. Thinking. The mental process of establishing essential connections between objects and phenomena of reality, the laws of the structure of nature. The possibility of connecting phenomena and objects gives thinking the property of generalizing the material of mental reflection, the perceptual images of which (as primary information) are secondarily (reflexively) processed (reflection of the reflected), mediated by memory, activity, speech. Types of thinking: - visual-effective (manipulation with an object, trial actions with it until an adaptive result and activity skill is obtained); — visual-figurative (internal activity of the right hemisphere of the brain, operating with sensory and sensorimotor images); - verbal-logical (internal activity of the left hemisphere of the brain, operating with concepts and signs). Forms of thinking: - concept (reflection using a sign system in words, numbers, notes, geometric figures, formulas, diagrams, symbols of people's knowledge about the most general and essential properties of objects and phenomena); — logic of judgments (affirmation or denial of an essential relationship between objects and phenomena) and inferences: deductive (from general judgment to particular) and inductive (from particular to general); - allegory (expression of an idea in a specific image), symbol (object, image, living creature, etc., embodying emotionally significant concepts outside the sign system), metaphor (allegory with the aim of stimulating imagination and reflection). Thinking operations: - encoding and decoding of information in the system “action - mode of action - designation of action” (reversibility of visual-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical types of thinking, their interaction: translation of an action into an image, an image into a word and vice versa); - analysis (mental separation of an object or phenomenon into its component parts) and synthesis (connection of a whole from parts); - representation (completion of fragmentary memory images with the help of thinking) and imagination (arbitrary combination of images of perception with the help of thinking); - classification of objects and phenomena into groups according to the criterion of a selected essential characteristic (for example, generic - according to the origin of one from another; specific - according to the common genetic affiliation of various forms, etc.). The classification uses separate techniques of analysis (separation) and synthesis (connection): comparison, generalization, specification; — abstraction (mental abstraction from concrete sensory forms and aspects of reality, transferring their consideration to a system of signs and diagrams); — systematization of information (development of concepts, models, theories using the specified operations). Thinking, first of all, performs the functional tasks of adaptation due to the outstanding reflection of reality, calculating the development of events (accuracy of prediction, foresight), establishing causal relationships, mechanisms, patterns, allowing the transformation of reality in the direction of the desired direction. Thinking disorders: - inhibition (slow pace, poverty of speech, difficulties in selecting the necessary words in depression, asthenia); - thoroughness (viscosity, stuck on trifles, trampling in one place with epilepsy, senile psychosis); - acceleration (stream of thoughts, rapid change in topics, jump of ideas) with euphoria; - Perseveration (stuck on one thought, its repetition in organic diseases of the brain); - cliffs (loss of continuation of the development of thought) and resonance (empty, imprisoned of reasoning, pseudofilosophical chatter) with schizophrenia; - Torn (the loss of logical connection between the individual phrases with the condensed grammar) and the incoherence (a set of individual words according to a random association). Methods of thinking of thinking are aimed at determining the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of individual operations, individual properties and types of thinking. Emotions and feelings. Emotion (from lat. Emovere to “excite”) - a positive or negative properties of the psychophysiological reaction of the relationship to an event significant for the needs of the individual, which is manifested by engine and vegetative manifestations characteristic of each emotion. The studies establish autonomous physiological mechanisms of a number of emotions, which in this regard is considered the main, classic. The centers of fear, anger, pleasure in the subcortical structures of the brain (the limbic system of the brain) and the biologically active substances (adrenaline, norepinephrine, endorphins, etc.) that caused characteristic vegetative and motor reactions are determined. These emotions can be initiated regardless of the event (not psychogenic) by the direct irritation of neural centers or the injection of hormones, neurotransmitters, and peptides of emotions. Depending on the strength, intensity, the main emotions invent certain shades of vegetative-hormonal sensations and the features of motor activity, which is reflected in their verbal designations. Fear: from slight anxiety and anxiety - to horror (panic or motor paralysis). Anger: From irritability to crushing affect of rage. Pleasure: from pleasant sensations to rapid ecstasy. The strength of emotions depends on the strength of the need and the degree of discrepancy between the expected and real information (P.V. Simonov). These are the patterns of the psychological mechanism of the emergence and course of emotions. Emotions gain a new psychological content that goes beyond the elementary sensorimotor reactions and conditions, in connection with the reflective experience of the events of the past, imagination and representation of the future, and empathy of the present. All this defines them already in a different quality as a feeling. In connection with the motivation that affects not only the biological needs of the individual, but also the social, spiritual needs of the personality, emotion transforms into senses, becomes subjective value (for example, an expensive memory, a favorite dream), a sign of communication (social function of expression of emotion) and even a conscious means influences on other people, acting technique of managing them (instrumental function of emotion). The gamut of feelings is the products of the mental process of figurative or intuitive thinking, very motivated, emotionally saturated with the situation, significant for humans. The modality of feelings is more diverse in comparison with emotions, since feelings are experienced together in emotions, sensations, ideas, imagination and thoughts that determine the paintings and drama of the diversity of event images. The right hemisphere of the brain is the highest section of the regulation of emotions and feelings.
Literature 1. Anokhin P.K. Biology and neurophysiology of the conditioned reflex. M., 1968. 2. Luria A.R. The human brain and mental processes. M., 1963. T. 1. 3. Springer S, Deitch G. Left brain, right brain. M., 1983.
Source: Gosudarev N.A. Special psychology: Textbook. - M.: Os-89, 2008.-288 p. Reviewers: V.I. Ekimova, Doctor of Psychology, Dean of the Academy of Psychology at Natalia Nesterova University; I. P. Krokhin, Candidate of Psychological Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Psychology at the Moscow State University of Service
CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS
One of the basic concepts about the mental sphere is CONSCIOUSNESS
(conscious) and
UNCONSCIOUS
.
In short. Consciousness is everything that we experience and of which we can be aware. Quite a broad definition. The unconscious is everything else. As numerous works of great thinkers, the work of psychologists, and the observations of psychiatrists show, the volume of the unconscious can be infinitely huge.
One can argue for a long time about approaches to understanding consciousness and its connection with the unconscious, but the one that was first identified by phenomenological philosophy and then confirmed and consolidated by Sartre’s existentialism seems quite successful.
This is quite simple, if you do not try to whitewash the Ethiopian: consciousness exists not simply as a phenomenon of mental life, but as a process that a person controls. He either “takes out of the game” or “introduces into the game” again certain parts of consciousness that are needed at a given moment in time. Of necessity.
And here a small subtlety arises - what command center controls the consciousness itself and directs it in the right direction? In general, it is quite obvious that it is hardly possible to find it within the boundaries of consciousness itself. And it is for this reason that the problem of the unconscious and its influence on consciousness arises.
A person’s inclinations, behavior or desires are processes that are determined by the very nature of personality construction, its so-called “initial project”, on the basis of which a person proudly chooses himself.
Such a global “deep structure” that informationally describes a person. That is, any movement of a person’s soul, any of its manifestations, is a manifestation of his entire personality, and it is convenient to decipher these suspicious movements using the proposed method of “existential psychoanalysis.”
It sounds complicated, but in fact it is simply systematic tracking and elaboration of behavioral manifestations that “reveal” the essence of a person, which, by the way, is often used in NLP.
The whole point is that existentialism (a direction in philosophy) proposed a model of multi-layered consciousness, with a complex structure and hierarchy, with varying degrees of activity of its parts in the activities occurring within. Therefore, it is assumed that the existence of consciousness is a controlled process and a person, depending on the specific situation, can either turn on or turn off its various parts.
However, such assumptions, which by the way are quite logical, always run into the system that controls these processes. Strictly speaking, existentialists put a “primary project” in the place of the unconscious, but, in essence, they propose to go beyond the boundaries of their beloved “here and now” and try to find an instance of controlling consciousness outside of it. And here we are with the unconscious.
From the point of view of modern ideas, the unconscious is defined as a set of mental formations, processes and mechanisms, the functioning of which and their influence on oneself a person is not aware of.
In total, we can distinguish five such large classes of phenomena:
Unconscious mechanisms of conscious actions
1.1. Unconscious automatisms.
These are primary and secondary automatisms (automatic actions (blinking, sneezing, etc.) and skills. The first were never realized at all, the second went through the processing of consciousness and were absorbed into the unconscious - on their basis, the action is carried out quickly and efficiently, and consciousness is freed for increasingly complex combinations. The release of actions from the control of consciousness is adaptive, a kaleidoscope of changes constantly occurs in it: various layers of the hierarchical system of acts of which it consists replace each other. If we wish, we can even return an old skill to consciousness to improve it, making it a more flexible and modern tool.
1.2. Unconscious attitude.
This is the internal readiness of an organism or subject to perform a certain action or to react in a certain direction. The difference between an attitude and a skill is that an attitude forms readiness for a certain action before the moment of its execution. And if this action is a skill (as, for example, in martial arts), then we get a huge advantage in the speed and accuracy of its implementation, and therefore efficiency.
1.3. Unconscious accompaniments of conscious actions.
These are very important communicative tools for non-verbal communication between people, which, moreover, can be used as markers of various psychological characteristics of a person. These include autonomic reactions, facial expressions, involuntary movements, and tonic tension.
Unconscious stimulants of conscious activity
These are unconscious affective complexes located in the depths of the unconscious itself, which, according to psychoanalysis, is represented by neurotic symptoms, erroneous actions (including slips of the tongue) and dreams.
Complexes deeply hidden in the unconscious manifest themselves in a variety of neurotic symptoms
and represent the painful consequences of repressed personal experiences that traumatize a person. When such a complex is opened, it loses its power, and, consequently, its motivating ability, freeing the individual from its tyranny.
Superconscious phenomena
These processes are so significant and voluminous that they pass through consciousness only partially, and even then in transit - they are intellectually or affectively overloaded and concern the most important areas of human life; their integral result can easily change fate. Their features include time extension and unexpected completion, which, together with the unpredictability of the result, can create both pictures of terrible crimes and ingenious discoveries.
Mechanisms and processes of subliminal perception of objects
The brain has the ability to respond to stimuli that are invisible to consciousness, but clearly perceived by the unconscious, and which, as a rule, have a significant psychological load for a particular person. These stimuli are not represented by images, but their appearance leads to the emergence, for example, of bioelectric reactions that can be tracked on devices (this principle is used in the operation of a “lie detector”).
Structures of the social unconscious
According to C. G. Jung, what we now call archetypes (structures of the social unconscious) are inherited structures and principles that are transmitted in a hidden form in a given culture and determine the worldview of its people.
Under certain conditions, they are activated and appear in consciousness either as symbolic images or as stereotypical reactions and modes of behavior.
Thus, the system of human adaptation to the world consists of an active consciousness that quickly responds to changes in the environment and an unconscious mind that stores data from previous experiences of interaction with reality and new information.
The peculiarity is that the control of human activity comes directly from the unconscious, to some extent reducing our concept of freedom of choice. Hence the need to restore order in the unconscious - try to structure the information fed into it, pay attention to its manifestations and carry out the necessary “cleaning” of its contents.
But this is not only a necessity - it is also an exciting journey towards expanding your capabilities.
Kornienko A. — Specificity of the mental form of reflection of reality
A.F. Kornienko Article on general psychology Vestnik Leningrad State University named after. A.S. Pushkin. – SPb.: Leningrad State University named after. A.S. Pushkina, 2008. – No. 2. – P. 5-19.
The problems that arise when defining the psyche as a subjective reflection of objective reality and as a special property of the brain are analyzed. It is shown that sensitivity is not a mental form of reflection. A new definition of the concept of “psyche” is proposed, the specifics of cognitive, emotional and volitional mental processes are clarified.
Key words: psyche, mental reflection, subject, irritability, sensitivity, specificity of mental processes.
The understanding of the psyche as a special form of reflection of reality is almost universally accepted in psychology. Analyzing the methodological and theoretical problems of psychology, B.F. Lomov wrote: “being a property of matter, a function of the brain, the psyche acts as a special form of reflection” [13, p. 139]. According to B.F. Lomov, “the logic of the development of psychological science leads to an understanding of mental processes as processes of subjective reflection of objective reality, ensuring the regulation of behavior according to the conditions in which it is carried out” [13, p. 134].
In the traditional and generally accepted understanding, “psyche” is presented as a subjective reflection of objective reality and as a special property or function of the brain (nervous system).
The expression "subjective reflection" means that the "reflection" belongs to or is inherent in the "subject". “Psychic reflection,” writes N.I. Chuprikov, “is subjective only in the sense that it belongs to a certain subject, depends on the organs of his perception and cognition, on the conditions, tasks and goals of activity” [16, p. 7].
However, to understand mental reflection as a reflection belonging to the subject, it is very important what meaning is given to the concept of “subject”. In psychology, due to its excessive anthropocentricity, this concept is usually used to characterize a person. In the work of B.F. Lomov, for example, states that “the subject and the subjective in their developed form relate to a person” [13, p. 145]. A.V. Brushlinsky, defining the concept of “subject” in the “narrow” sense, about [3, p. 32].
If by “subject” we mean a person with a psyche, then the psyche is what the subject has. But what is this “psyche” that the subject has?
The presence of the psyche means the presence of a psychic form of reflection. In this regard, we can say that mental reflection is inherent in any bearer of the psyche, regardless of what we call it - “subject” or something else. If we call the bearer of the psyche a “subject” and at the same time define the psyche and mental reflection of the subject as a subjective reflection, then we actually form a tautological construction: “The psyche is what the bearer of the psyche has.”
When calling the bearer of the psyche a “subject,” we must keep in mind that not only humans, but also other species of animals are bearers of the psyche. In this regard, the question arises: “Why can’t the concept of “subject”, in the sense of “bearer of the psyche,” be extended to animals with a psyche?
The problem with the definition and use of the concept of “subject” can be resolved if we recognize that this concept can be used in two different senses: 1) in a broader sense as “a carrier of the psyche” and 2) in a narrower sense as “a person carrying out any activity " In the first case, the use of the concept “subject” is permissible both in relation to humans and animals in connection with the consideration of the processes of mental reflection of reality. In the second case, the concept of “subject” can only be used in relation to a person performing some externally objective activity. The use of the concept of “subject” in this case allows us to emphasize the essence of a person as an active principle in interaction with “objects”, which are considered as passive and inactive formations.
So what is the essence of the mental reflection inherent in the subject?
Recognizing the general philosophical understanding of reflection as a universal property of matter, consisting in the reproduction of signs, properties and relationships of some objects (reflected) in others (reflected) as a result of their interaction, N.I. Chuprikova [17, p. 108]. However, not every reflection is psychic. Depending on the nature and level of complexity of interacting objects, other forms of reflection can be distinguished, for example: physical, biochemical, physiological, social.
If we want to determine the specifics of mental reflection, we should not limit ourselves to the general concept of reflection. It is also insufficient to indicate that mental reflection is a reflection of objective reality. Regulation of the activity of any living organism, even in the case of manifestation of its simplest form - irritability, is always carried out on the basis of the body's reflection of the specific parameters of the influencing stimulus, i.e., a reflection of objective reality. Without obtaining knowledge about the impact, without reflecting its most important parameters, the body's response to the impact will be inadequate.
Defining the psyche as the general ability of a living organism to reflect reality and regulate based on the reflection of its behavior, we, in essence, attribute the presence of a psyche to any living organism. The reference to the fact that mental reflection is necessary to ensure a more adequate reflection of reality does not clarify much, since it is unclear how “more adequate” the reflection must be in order for it to be called “mental”? Nor does the introduction into the definition of psyche reveal the essence of mental reflection by indicating that it is a special property or function of the brain (nervous system). Yes, this allows us to limit the range of organisms that can have a psyche. But how does the reflection of reality differ in an organism with a brain compared to simpler organisms?
The idea that not every organism has a psyche was shared and defended by A.N. Leontyev. He associated its appearance with the appearance in animals of a nervous system and the ability to “sensitize” [10]. At the same time, he directly correlated the concept of sensitivity with the concept of sensation as the simplest form of the psyche. Thanks to sensitivity, A.N. Leontiev believed, the organism is able to isolate so-called “abiotic” influences from the environment, reflect the existing objective connections between “biotic” and “abiotic” influences, and on this basis carry out more complex and more adequate forms behavior. And it was this reflection that he proposed to call psychic.
Undoubtedly, sensitivity is a more complex form of both reflection and motor activity of the body compared to irritability. However, as we showed earlier [7], both irritability and sensitivity should be considered as pre-psychic, namely physiological forms of reflection.
Mechanisms of irritability and sensitivity
From a physiological point of view, the reaction R that occurs in the body in response to the irritating effect of S can be represented by the following simple relationship:
where: S - external influence; ∆VS—changes in the physiological processes of the body due to exposure to S; RS is the motor response of the body to the influence of S.
Changes in the physiological processes of the body corresponding to the impact can be considered as a physiological form of reflection of the impact or as a corresponding physiological form of knowledge about this impact. To denote knowledge
organism about the impact of S, we introduce the symbol . If we write ∆VS = and assume that the body’s reaction RS to the influence of S is based on knowledge, then relation (1) can be reduced to the form
(2)
However, it is necessary to take into account that the acquisition of knowledge about the effects of S and the implementation of RS reactions are carried out in the body by different structures or different “functional systems”. The first can be called “sensory”, the second – “motor”. Changes ∆VS that occur in the sensory system correspond to knowledge about the impact S, but not about the reaction RS that the body needs to make in response to this impact. The corresponding knowledge of RS' must arise in a system that is functionally located between “sensory” and “motor” and which we can call “central”. Moreover, in order for an RS reaction to arise on the basis of knowledge RS', this knowledge must be represented in the “central system” in the form of certain changes ∆VRs in the physiological processes occurring in it. In this regard, relation (2) is transformed into the relation
(3)
Analysis of relationship (3) allows us to identify two forms of interaction of the organism with its external environment: a) physiological, associated with changes in ∆VS and in physiological processes, and b) informational, associated with the acquisition and transformation of knowledge SV ' And .
As noted above, irritability usually correlates with the body’s innate, unconditional reflex reactions to “biotic” influences. However, in order for an organism to adequately respond to biotic influences, it must have a certain system of innate knowledge about which influences are biotic and what reactions need to be performed in response to certain influences. In addition, it should be recognized that there is a mechanism for identifying the external influence of S as the influence of biotic Sb. The internal mechanisms that determine the body's response to biotic influences based on irritability are presented in the form of a diagram in Fig. 1.
Fig.1. Mechanisms of irritability as an innate, genetically determined form of the body’s response to biotic influences
The mechanisms that ensure the regulation of the body's behavior based on sensitivity as a more complex form of reflection are presented in Fig. 2.
Fig.2. Mechanisms for regulating body behavior based on sensitivity
The most visible advantage of sensitivity in ensuring the adequacy of the adaptive behavior of the organism manifests itself in a situation where the abiotic impact arrives with a slight advance in time relative to the associated biotic one. In this case, the body’s reaction to the biotic influence begins before its actual entry, and the illusion is created that the organism has an advanced form of reflection of reality, which P.K. Anokhin [2] considered it as a sign of the psyche. In fact, there is no anticipatory reflection - there is an anticipatory reaction, and the body reacts not to what will happen, but to what was. It simply reproduces a reaction acquired in past individual experience, when an abiotic influence was associated with a biotic one. To obtain knowledge about a future that does not exist and which, therefore, cannot have an impact on the body, sensitivity mechanisms are not enough. For this, fundamentally new mechanisms are needed - mechanisms of anticipatory reflection, ensuring the acquisition of knowledge about the future of objective reality. These are the ones that should be called “psychic”. And it is precisely for their implementation in living organisms that, in the process of evolution, the nervous system gradually arises and the brain appears.
Mechanisms of mental reflection
Defining the psyche as a property of the brain that provides an advanced reflection of reality allows, firstly, to identify the specifics of the mental form of reflection and, secondly, to solve the problem of the biological significance of the appearance of the psyche in the process of evolution of living organisms. However, the question arises, how far from the present is that future, in order to obtain knowledge about which the brain must have a property called psyche?
To answer this question, you need to find out:
- How does objective reality change over time, and what objective mechanisms underlie this change?
- How does the rate of change in objective reality correlate with the rate of change in the state that interacts with the reality of the organism?
The need to answer the first question is dictated by the fact that advanced reflection is a reflection of changes in objective reality. Knowing the laws of these changes, it is easier to understand the mechanisms of their reflection. As for the answer to the second question, it is obvious that the organism, when manifesting and organizing its vital activity, must “fit” into the dynamics of the phenomena of reality, into the “space-time continuum” within which its vital activity is carried out. But for this it is necessary that the processes occurring in the body and the changes in objective reality reflected due to these processes be somehow coordinated.
The answer to the first question can be found in the works of the modern philosopher T.P. Lolaev [12], who introduced the concept of “functional time”, and a specialist in the theory of automatic control systems V.V. Pimenov [14], who put forward the idea of “generalized inertia” as an objective cause of changes occurring in the world. Any changes in the state of objects form, according to T.P. Lolaev, only “intervals of the present time.” The passage of time is expressed in the sequential replacement of one interval of present time by another. V.V. Pimenov, as well as T.P. Lolaev, defines time as a measure of changes that occur in a certain material system. As an objective reason for these changes, V.V. Pimenov calls “generalized inertia,” the meaning of which is that while maintaining the conditions of interaction, the rate of changes occurring in the material system remains constant. However, it should be borne in mind that as changes in the current “present” are completed, the conditions of interaction of objects in the subsequent “present” change, and this can lead to a change in the subsequent and rate of changes occurring in the material system.
Representations by T.P. Lolaeva and V.V. Pimenov’s ideas about time, interaction and “generalized inertia” make it possible to describe processes occurring in a certain situation of objective reality in a certain period of present time using a simple relation
(4)
where: Сн is the state of situation C in the original period of present time;
Sb is the possible state of situation C in the subsequent period of the present time, which, following traditional ideas about time, can be designated as a state in the “near future”;
∆С is the magnitude of changes in situation C, which is associated with the concept of the duration of the time period ∆tн. It is obvious that ∆С = (Sb – Сн), and ∆tн is a measure of these changes.
Taking into account the law of “generalized inertia”, we can write
(5)
where Cn is the state of situation C in the period of time preceding the initial one, that is, corresponding to the concept of “near past”.
By means of elementary rearrangements, relation (5) is reduced to the form
(6)
It is not difficult to verify that the existence of the law of “generalized inertia” allows for the fundamental possibility of obtaining knowledge Sb' about the situation Sb before its appearance on the basis of knowledge about the “present” (Sn) and the “immediate past” (Sp). This allows for the possibility of the emergence in the process of evolution of living systems of a mechanism of advanced reflection, i.e., the psyche.
Taking into account relation (6), we can say that the emergence of the psyche as the ability to proactively reflect reality presupposes the presence of the following mechanisms in living organisms:
a) the mechanism for acquiring knowledge Сn' about the situation of the “real” Сn (reception mechanism);
b) the mechanism for acquiring knowledge Sp' about the situation of the “near past” Sp (the mechanism of individual memory);
c) a mechanism that implements the function Cb' = Cn' + (Cn' – Cn' ).
As for the latter mechanism, it is precisely for its implementation in the body that a nervous system arises with nerve cells having excitatory and inhibitory dendrites. The presence of these types of dendrites ensures that the nerve cell performs the functions of addition and subtraction of the flows of nerve impulses arriving to it. Considering that the flows of nerve impulses represent a form of existence of knowledge about influences, which many associate with the concept of “information,” we can say that the processes occurring in the nervous system are processes of information synthesis. In this regard, I would like to especially note that in the psychophysiological studies of AM Ivanitsky [6], the idea of information synthesis of brain processes as the basis of mental phenomena received empirical confirmation. In particular, as the author claims, “the synthesis of two types of information - available and retrieved from memory - constitutes the key mechanism that underlies sensation as a phenomenon no longer of a physiological, but of a mental level” [6, p. 205]. The fruitfulness of the information approach to solving the problem of “psyche and brain” is convincingly proven in the work of D.I. Dubrovsky [5].
Extending the concept of time ∆tн as a measure of changes ∆C to changes ∆VS and ∆VRs occurring in living organisms during the implementation of the functions of reflecting influences S and regulating behavior RS, we can state that each organism has its own “functional time” and its own minimum period of time ∆torg .
If we link changes in the body to changes in objective reality, then, apparently, we should agree that ∆torg is much greater than ∆tн. This means that the organism, carrying out the function of regulating behavior according to the principle of a reflex (S R), will always be late, since at the moment of the reaction (i.e., after the time ∆torg after the impact), the “present” situation, knowledge about which was obtained as a result of its reflection, will always find itself in the “past”. Since the reaction is not carried out in the situation for which it was designed, it turns out to be inadequate in relation to the new situation.
In order for the behavior of an organism in the situation of a new “real” CH2 to be adequate, knowledge about this particular situation, i.e., CH2′, and not CH1′, must be transferred to its motor system. But this knowledge must be obtained before the situation itself Sn2 arises. This means that the organism must have not only a reception mechanism that allows it to obtain knowledge about objective reality (i.e., the situation Sn1), but also a mechanism for reflecting the near future of this reality, i.e., the situation Sn2. However, that's not all. To carry out adequate behavior in a situation in the near future, the organism must be able to obtain three types of knowledge:
- about objects and phenomena that will be in this situation;
- about the degree of their significance for the body;
- about the actions that an organism can or should carry out in relation to those significant objects and phenomena that will occur in the situation of the near future.
Since all types of knowledge in the body can be represented only in the form of corresponding neurophysiological equivalents, in order to obtain them, neurophysiological processes must occur in a certain way organized and coordinated (synchronized) with each other in the body (in its brain). In accordance with the concept of P.K. Anokhin, this set of processes represents a certain “functional system” [1]. Each of the processes included in the system, performing its specific function, contributes to achieving the overall result of the system’s functioning. On the other hand, since we are talking about obtaining knowledge about the near future of objective reality, each of the processes that make up the functional system is directly related to the concept of “psyche”. Of course, these processes themselves are neurophysiological, but they have a special property - to provide knowledge about certain aspects of the near future of the reflected reality. In fact, every neurophysiological process within a functional system contains two components: material (actually, physiological) and informational. And it makes sense to call this informational component of the neurophysiological process, in which the property called psyche manifests itself, a mental process. Thus, the neurophysiological process occurring in the brain and performing the function of reflecting the near future of objective reality appears in the unity of the “physiological” and “mental”.
The dual nature of the neurophysiological processes occurring in the brain allows us to formulate two definitions of the psyche:
1. Psyche is the ability of the brain and the neurophysiological processes occurring in it to change, which reflects the features of the near future of objective reality and the possible forms of behavior of the subject (the bearer of the psyche) in it.
This definition is described by the relation
Everything related to this definition constitutes the object of study of neuropsychology.
2. Psyche is a subjective (i.e., belonging to the subject as the bearer of the psyche) reflection of the features of the near future of objective reality in the form of knowledge (images), on the basis of which the adaptive behavior of the subject is regulated.
This definition is described by the relation
Everything related to acquiring knowledge C 'bl.bud. and R 'bl.bud, is obviously an object of study of psychology, and the ratio of this knowledge and the corresponding changes ∆VC bl.bud. and ∆VRbl.bud in neurophysiological processes occurring in the brain is the object of study of psychophysiology.
To designate the processes of obtaining knowledge about various features of objects and phenomena of the near future of objective reality, it is advisable to use the names of cognitive, emotional and volitional mental processes well known in psychology, the classification of which was proposed by G.I. Chelpanov [15]. Cognitive mental processes should be understood as processes of reflection of the near future of those properties of objects and phenomena of reality that they really have, i.e., their objective properties. In the structure of cognitive processes, four processes can be distinguished, differing in the level of complexity, which, in essence, characterize the levels of evolutionary development of the psyche. These are sensation, perception, thinking and consciousness [9].
Emotional mental processes are processes of reflecting the significance for the subject of everything that is reflected in cognitive mental processes. These include emotions, feelings and experiences [8].
Volitional mental processes are processes of reflection of the subject’s possible actions in relation to what is significant for him.
A general diagram illustrating the mechanisms of the mental form of reflecting objective reality and regulating the behavior of the organism in conditions of changes in this reality is presented in Fig. 3. The diagram also takes into account that emotional mental processes, in addition to the reflective function, also perform the function of inducing significant forms of behavior.
C ' – image of situation C; R'(C) is the behavior of R in situation C; and - the significance of the images of the situation C ' and the behavior of R'(C) in the situation C
Rice. 3. Mechanisms of the mental form of reflecting reality and regulating the behavior of an organism with a psyche
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