About mechanisms of genesis,structure, and functional role of endogenous rhythms (To the 100-Annivesary of Aleksei Valentinovich Voino-Yasenetskii)

The work presents a short review of concepts of origin and representation of ancient (primary) endogenous rhythms whose period is in the near-second-near minute ranges. These rhythms are the basis for the appearance of the viscero-and somatomotor excitation in various functional systems of vertebrate and invertebrate animals. Based on literature data and the own studies, there has been considered a hypothesis of universality of mechanisms of generation of endogenous rhythms of a certain frequency range regardless of their localization. The recently performed new experimental works have confirmed and enlarged A.V. Voino-Yasenetskiis’s viewpoints suggested in the 1950–1980s. It has been shown that under effect of certain extreme or pathological factors, in excitable structures, functional dissolution of coordinational mechanisms can be observed; it is accompanied by a change of the activity pattern and reproduction in it of the ancient excitation rhythms absent in the normal state. The appeared atypical rhythmicity is similar with pathological activity described in clinical medicine. Development of further studies of mechanisms of reproduction of primary rhythms might be not only of fundamental, but also of certain practical interest.