Evo-devo and the I.I. Schmalhausen concept of the evolution of ontogeny

Evo-devo is considered a special field of knowledge emphasizing the role of developmental processes and mechanisms in evolution and integrating the data of many disciplines studying various structural levels of biosphere organization. A mechanical approach to estimation of events is regarded as a specific feature of the evo-devo concept. In our opinion, the I.I. Schmalhausen concept of the evolution of ontogeny, opposing the reductionist approach of many contemporary evo-devo adherents, can be regarded as the fundamental basis of evo-devo.     

I. I. Shmal'gauzen's concept of the evolution of ontogeny

The concept of evolution of ontogenesis by I. I. Shmal'gauzen is presented as a result of reviewing some of his theoretical works. This concept appears to be the most consistent development of classical darwinism on the basis of a basically new (as compared with synthetic theory of evolution) evolutionary-synthetic approach. This latter has been based on the idea of the organism integrity in onto- and phylogenesis and the involvement of the organismic level (ontogenesis), together with the population and biocoenotic ones, in the evolutionary process as a whole.     

I. P. Pavlov and the development of neuroscience

Ivan Petrovitch Pavlov significantly changed and developed our knowledge of the brain functions and of the behaviour by his fundamental experimental and theoretical work on the physiology and pathophysiology of the higher nervous activity. He was one of the scientists who prepared the development of neuroscience in our century. During the Pavlovian Conference, 1950 in Moscow Stalin and the Communist Party tried to dogmatize his and his pupil's fundamental theories. But his pupils continued to develop Pavlovian ideas in open discussions with representatives of other schools in a very creative way, opening the doors for a system approach to understand the integrative functional systems of brain and behavior. Pavlov emphasized the high plasticity of the central nervous system. He investigated the complex functional systems within the brain and between the organism and its environment, and the designed models for pathology of the higher nervous activity. During his last years, Pavlov freed himself from the strong deterministic view and characterized the organism and its environment as a self-organizing system.