TY - JOUR
T1 - The loyal dissident: N.A. Bernstein and the double-edged sword of Stalinism
AU - Meijer, O.G.
AU - Bruijn, S.M.
PY - 2007
Y1 - 2007
N2 - Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bernstein (1896-1966) studied movement in order to understand the brain. Contra Pavlov, he saw movements (thus, the brain) as coordinated. For Bernstein, the cortex was a stochastic device; the more cortexes an animal species has, the more variable its actions will be. Actions are planned with a stochastic "model of the future," and relevance is established through blind mathematical search. In the 1950 neoPavlovian affair, he came under strong attack and had to stop experimenting. It is argued that the consistency of his work derived both from both dialectical materialism and the relentless attacks of the neoPavlovians. Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
AB - Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bernstein (1896-1966) studied movement in order to understand the brain. Contra Pavlov, he saw movements (thus, the brain) as coordinated. For Bernstein, the cortex was a stochastic device; the more cortexes an animal species has, the more variable its actions will be. Actions are planned with a stochastic "model of the future," and relevance is established through blind mathematical search. In the 1950 neoPavlovian affair, he came under strong attack and had to stop experimenting. It is argued that the consistency of his work derived both from both dialectical materialism and the relentless attacks of the neoPavlovians. Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
U2 - 10.1080/09647040600720979
DO - 10.1080/09647040600720979
M3 - Article
SN - 0964-704X
VL - 16
SP - 206
EP - 224
JO - Journal of the History of the Neurosciences
JF - Journal of the History of the Neurosciences
IS - 1-2
ER -