ASRATYAN 30 



ASRATYAN, EZRAS ACRATOVICH (Physiologist) 



E. A. Asratyan was born May 31, 1903. A pupil of I. P. 

 Pavlov, he graduated from the Agricultural Institute in 1926 

 and from the University of Yerevan Medical School in 1930 

 From 1930 to 1938, he worked in the Physiological Institute, 

 Academy of Sciences. From 1935 to 1941, he worked at the 

 Bekhterov Cerebral Institute and from 1936 to 1941, at the 

 Leningrad Institute of Pedagogy where he became a professor 

 in 1938. From 1950-52, he was Director of the Institute of 

 Higher Neuroactivity. In 1944 he was appointed Chief of the 

 Academy of Sciences Physiological Laboratory, and later be- 

 came Director of the Institute. He has been professor at the 

 Second Medical Institute since 1950. He has been an Acade- 

 mician of the Armenian Academy of Sciences since 1947, a 

 member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union since 1929, 

 and was elected to the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences as a 

 Corresponding Member in 1939. As of 1961, he was Director 

 of the Institute of Neurophysiology of the U.S.S.R. Academy of 

 Sciences. In 1962 he was awarded the Pavlov Gold Medal for 

 studies in Pavlovian physiology. 



Using Pavlov's teachings of the evolutionary theory of the 

 adaptability of the nervous system, Asratyan explained the re- 

 generating aspects in a damaged organism. He and his collabo- 

 rators proved that in the regeneration of lost and broken 

 functions of the damaged organism, a deciding role is played 

 by the cortex of the large hemispheres of the cephalic brain. 

 He also demonstrated the pathological condition of the organism, 

 produced by organic trauma (traumatic shock, paralysis, in- 

 cisions) and offered a new soporific method for treatment of 

 these conditions. An anti- shock liquid developed by Asratyan 

 was used in the front lines of the second World War. He, with 

 collaborators, has been working on the problems of cortical 

 presentation of unconditioned reflexes, the transfer into con- 

 ditioned reflex activity, and the relationship of conditional ties 

 to various functional properties. 

 Bibliography: 



The influence of extirpation of the cortex of the large hemi- 

 spheres of the brain in the vegetative and somatic functions 

 of the organism. Reports on the 20th International Con- 

 gress of Physiologists, Brussels, 1956. Moscow: 1956. 

 Outline on Etiology, Pathology and the Therapy of Traumatic 

 Shock. Moscow: 1945. 



On the Adaptive Aspects in a Damaged Organism. Moscow: 

 1948. 



