This section focuses on how the nervous system ensures the survival and adaptation of the organism to constantly changing environmental conditions. You will learn how our brain uses the evolutionary experience of our ancestors and how it forms its own.
The material is divided into three intrinsically linked topics. First, we will analyze innate behavior—hardwired unconditioned reflexes and instincts. Then we will move on to acquired behavior, ruled by neuroplasticity and conditioned reflexes. The section concludes with the physiology of memory—the biological foundation without which the retention and retrieval of any new experience would be impossible.
In normal physiology classes, professors traditionally require a thorough knowledge of the classification of unconditioned reflexes (e.g., according to P.V. Simonov), the rules for developing conditioned reflexes according to I.P. Pavlov, and the mechanisms of memory consolidation. Pay special attention to synaptic plasticity (long-term potentiation)—this is a favorite exam question that will later become the key to understanding neurology and psychiatry.