Anticipation: Learning from the Past – Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg Institute for Advanced Study & The antÉ Institute for Research in Anticipatory Systems

Program Information

Session: P.K. Anokhin and the Theory of Functional Systems

Konstantin Anokhin (Moscow, Russia)
Cognitome: Cognition and Anticipation in the Extended Functional Systems Theory

Yuri Alexandrov (Moscow, Russia)
Cognition as Systemogenesis (PDF)

Evgenii Vityaev (Novosibirsk, Russia)
Purposefulness as a Principle of Brain Activity. Functional Systems Theory (PDF)

Lev Tsitolovsky (Tel Aviv, Israel)
Endogenous Generation of Goals and Homeostasis (PDF)

Alexander Saltykov, Sergey Grachev (Moscow, Russia)
Anticipation and the Concept of System-Forming Factor
in the Theory of Functional Systems (PDF)

Session: N.A. Bernstein and the Physiology of Activity

Irina Sirotkina, Elena Biryukova (Moscow, Russia)
Futurism in Physiology: Nikolai Bernstein, Anticipation, and Kinaesthetic Imagination (PDF)

Mark Latash (Pennsylvania, USA)
Bernstein’s “Desired Future” and Physics of Human Movement (PDF)

Josef Feigenberg (Jerusalem, Israel)
Memory, Probabilistic Prognosis, and Presetting for Action (PDF)

Vera Talis (Moscow, Russia)
New Pages in the Biography of Nikolai Alexandrovich Bernstein (PDF)

Session: A.A. Ukhtomsky and the Study of the Dominant

Lena Zueva, Konstantin Zuev (Moscow, Russia)
Theory of the Dominant by A.A. Ukhtomsky and Anticipation (PDF)

Sergey Chebanov (St. Petersburg, Russia)
A.A. Ukhtomsky’s Idea of Chronotope as a Frame of Anticipation

Andres Kurismaa (Tartu, Estonia)
Approaches to Anticipation in the Framework of Dominant Studies (PDF)

Session: Anticipation: Evolutionary and Behavioral Perspectives

Dobilas Kirvelis, Vygandas Vanagas (Vilnius, Lithuania)
E.N. Sokolof’s Neural Model of Stimuli as a Cybernetical Approach to Anticipatory Perception

Merab Tsagareli (Tbilisi, Georgia)
I.S. Beritashvili and Psychoneural Integration of Behavior (PDF)

Inga Poletaeva and Zoya Zorina (Moscow, Russia)
Extrapolation Ability in Animals and its Possible Links to Exploration, Anxiety, and Novelty Seeking (PDF)

Aaro Toomela (Tallinn, Estonia)
Towards Understanding Biotic, Psychic and Semiotically Mediated Mechanisms of Anticipation (PDF)

Elena Sergienko (Moscow, Russia)
Anticipation as Proof of the Unity of Perception and Thought (Skype) (PDF)

Elena Nikolaeva (Saint-Petersburg, Russia)
Alexander Luria: Creator in the Perspective of Time

Fabián Labra-Spröhnle (Wellington, New Zealand)
The Mind of a Visionary: The Morphology of Cognitive Anticipation as a Cardinal Symptom (PDF)

Mihai Nadin (Dallas, USA)
Anticipation in the perspective of time: rediscovering the pioneering work of scientists from the previous Soviet Union

This session covers the Soviet/Russian contributions to a science of anticipation and will offer a unique opportunity to deal with the suppressed science of a number of distinguished researchers, partly known through their contributions to other subjects. The context is simple to define: the political suppression of most creative and original scientists lead to a loss of the huge potential which their major schools of research carried for anticipation – first of all, in sciences studying the brain, mind, and behavior.

With the creation of politically motivated “official” physiology and biology in the USSR between 1948 – 1950, leading scientists were led to either compromise their unique line of work, or to face marginalization and oppression. However, the most distinguished ones of them did not succumb, and continued to reject the trivialized understanding of causality forced on them in the guise of the so-called Marxist-Leninist dialectics of the day.
In reality, more than their colleagues from the West, they advanced hypotheses based on notions either ignored in the USA and Western Europe, or considered too broad. Excessive specialization returns valuable knowledge, but particularly in areas studying the complex systems of life, mind, and society, it falls prey to the danger of missing the broader picture. Now, Western research has the chance to rediscover this picture in the systemic approaches of many earlier works. By doing so, it can avoid the risk of having to reinvent what has been accomplished long ago by numerous scientists.

The session’s focus will not be on the history, but on the current scientific relevance of works by authors who distinguished themselves not only through scientific integrity, but also through an originality that was rarely recognized. Their writings yet to be made known, from which present research can benefit, will be a particular focus.

Among other outstanding scholars, the program addresses:

P.K. Anokhin (1898 – 1974). Founder of the theory of functional systems, a branch of research on the systemic organization of biological and neuropsychological functions with wide applications in numerous areas – from embryology to artifical intelligence, psychology, and social systems. In 1935, P.K. Anokhin and N.A. Bernstein pioneered original concepts of feedback, years before Norbert Wiener.

A.A. Ukhtomsky (1875 – 1942). Founder of the paradigm of dominants – a unified explanatory principle in biology and cognition, with special orientation to social and human disciplines. Probably the first systemic interpretation of non-equlibrium dynamics of biological and mental functions, with the still unique stress on their highly variable and plastic modes of integration and interaction over time (principles of lability, dominance, parabiosis).

N.A. Bernstein (1896 – 1966). Creator of the physiology and psychology of activity, co-founder of biological cybernetics in the USSR. Bernstein pioneered studies in mathematics for living systems, and was the first to formulate fundamental problems of modern motor control science (the now famous “Bernstein problem” of coordination). Numerous aspects of his legacy, including the psychological ones, remain to be discovered.

L.A. Orbeli (1882 – 1958). Founder of evolutionary physiology – studies on the principles of evolutionary transformation of functions, as a counterpart to morphological evolution. Pioneered the integrative research on common developmental principles in nature and cognition, with important implications for research on informational systems – including human language and culture.

I.S. Beritashvili (1884 – 1974). A major figure in 20th-century physiology. He founded the electrophysiology of spinal cord reflexes. Beritashvili’s most significant contribution was the discovery of the mediation of animal psychoneural behavior by image-driven memory. He established the national schools of physiology and neuroscience in Georgia, and was one of the founders of the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO).