This thesis presents a series of inter-related case studies (Kurismaa 2015; Kurismaa and Pavlova 2016; Pavlova, Berlov and Kurismaa 2017) aiming to reexamine, from modern perspectives, one of the most significant and integrative approaches to neurophysiology in the 20-th century - the study of the dominant (учение о доминанте) by the physiologist acad. A.A. Ukhtomsky (1875-1942) and his scientific school. Although recognized as a critical contribution and framework for organism-centered study of physiology, knowledge of this school has remained minimal in the West, and to this day, almost entirely unexplored for its prospects of integration and interrelation with respective foreign research programs in biology and neuroscience, both past and present. In recent years, and partly on the initiative of the present author, some of the first attempts have been made to overcome these limitations, and to more systematically address the legacy of Ukhtomsky's school from modern perspectives of Western science (Nadin 2015). The present thesis, growing out from these efforts, contributes further materials to such comparative and methodological investigation. It aims specifically to clarify the modern status and significance of the dominant framework as an integrative and organismic paradigm for neuroscientific...

A presente proposta visa examinar a formação histórica do conceito de célula visual. Pretendemos delimitar o estudo ao caso das células fotorreceptoras (cones e bastonetes). Em meados da década de 1860 a teoria vigente sobre o processo perceptivo era a das energias específicas dos nervos proposta por Johannes Müller (1801-1858) e desenvolvida posteriormente por Hermann Von Helmholtz (1821-1894). Examinaremos em nossa pesquisa a formação do conceito de tipos específicos de células nervosas associadas aos processos perceptivos (o foco do trabalho são as células do sistema visual). Esse debate envolve a formação dos conceitos de córtex visual, sistema visual, informação nervosa e célula nervosa. O período examinado será o entorno das duas últimas décadas do século XIX (décadas de 1880 e 1890), período em que Ferruccio Tartuferi (1852-1925) propõe a constituição híbrida da retina em 1887 e é marcada também pela formulação da teoria neuronal (teoria formulada principalmente pelo espanhol Santiago Ramón y Cajal) / The objective of the present study is to examine the historical formation of the visual cell concept, focussing on the the study of photoreceptor cells (cones and rods). In the mid-1860s, the current theory about the perceptual process was that of the specific energies of nerves proposed by Johannes Müller (1801-1858) and later developed by Hermann Von Helmholtz (1821-1894). Our research will examine the formation of the concept of specific types of nerve cells associated with perceptual processes (the focus of the work are the cells of the visual system). This debate involves the formation of the concepts of visual cortex, visual system, nervous information and nerve cell. The period examined will be the last two decades of the nineteenth century (1880s and 1890s), a period in which Ferruccio Tartuferi (1852-1925) proposed the hybrid constitution of the retina in 1887 and also marked by the formulation of neuronal theory mainly by the Spaniard Santiago Ramón y Cajal

A presente proposta visa examinar a formação histórica do conceito de célula visual. Pretendemos delimitar o estudo ao caso das células fotorreceptoras (cones e bastonetes). Em meados da década de 1860 a teoria vigente sobre o processo perceptivo era a das energias específicas dos nervos proposta por Johannes Müller (1801-1858) e desenvolvida posteriormente por Hermann Von Helmholtz (1821-1894). Examinaremos em nossa pesquisa a formação do conceito de tipos específicos de células nervosas associadas aos processos perceptivos (o foco do trabalho são as células do sistema visual). Esse debate envolve a formação dos conceitos de córtex visual, sistema visual, informação nervosa e célula nervosa. O período examinado será o entorno das duas últimas décadas do século XIX (décadas de 1880 e 1890), período em que Ferruccio Tartuferi (1852-1925) propõe a constituição híbrida da retina em 1887 e é marcada também pela formulação da teoria neuronal (teoria formulada principalmente pelo espanhol Santiago Ramón y Cajal) / The objective of the present study is to examine the historical formation of the visual cell concept, focussing on the the study of photoreceptor cells (cones and rods). In the mid-1860s, the current theory about the perceptual process was that of the specific energies of nerves proposed by Johannes Müller (1801-1858) and later developed by Hermann Von Helmholtz (1821-1894). Our research will examine the formation of the concept of specific types of nerve cells associated with perceptual processes (the focus of the work are the cells of the visual system). This debate involves the formation of the concepts of visual cortex, visual system, nervous information and nerve cell. The period examined will be the last two decades of the nineteenth century (1880s and 1890s), a period in which Ferruccio Tartuferi (1852-1925) proposed the hybrid constitution of the retina in 1887 and also marked by the formulation of neuronal theory mainly by the Spaniard Santiago Ramón y Cajal