47 BERITASHVILI 



has been Chief of scientific work there. He was elected Acade- 

 mician of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences in 1939 and in 1941 

 of the Georgian S.S.R. Academy of Sciences. Since 1944 he has 

 been a member of the Academy of Medical Sciences. In 1938 

 Beritashvili was awarded the Prize of I. P. Pavlov and in 1941 

 a Stalin Prize. In 1959 Beritashvili was elected an honorary 

 member of the New York Academy of Sciences. 



The main work of Beritashvili is devoted to muscle physiolo- 

 gy and the physiology of the nervous systems, particularly the 

 central nervous system. He conducted investigations on the 

 following: the contracting power of various muscles, the re- 

 lationship of processes of excitation and contraction, functional 

 differences of nervous and non-nervous sections of the muscle, 

 plastic and elastic properties of various muscles, functional 

 properties of peripheral nerves, velocity of distribution of 

 excitation in the central nervous system, its coordinating action, 

 the variability of innate reflex actions, the phenomenon of gener- 

 al inhibition of the central nervous system, the higher forms of 

 behavior in vertebrates, the neuro-psychic processes and their 

 behavioural role, the conditions of formation of temporary con- 

 nections, the role of receptors in spatial orientation in verte- 

 brates and in man, the structural basis of the neuro-psychic 

 activity, the interaction between the imaginal neuro-psychic ac- 

 tivity and reflex action in animals, the interaction between the 

 conscious and reflex action of man and others. He was one of 

 the first to widely utilize the newest methods of investigating 

 electric processes in the central nervous system. He is the 

 author of a treatise "General Physiology of the Muscle and 

 Nervous System" (1937, Stalin Prize 1941). 

 Bibliography: 



Study on the Basic Elements of Central Coordination of Skele- 

 tal Muscles. Petrograd: 1916. 



Individually Acquired Activity of the Central Nervous System. 



Tbilisi: 1932. 



On the Basic Forms of Nervous and Psychonervous Activity. 



Moscow-Leningrad: 1947. 



Nervous Mechanisms of Spatial Orientation of Mammals. 



Tbilisi: 1959. 



Nervous Mechanisms of Behavior in Higher Vertebrates. 



Moscow: 1961. 

 Office: I. S. Beritashvili Institute of Physiology of the 



Academy of Sciences Georgian SSR 

 Voyenno-Gruzinskaya Doroga 22 

 Tbilisi, Georgian SSR 



