Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry, Institute of

Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry, Institute of 

(full name, I. M. Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR), the leading scientific research institution involved in the study of the physiological, biochemical, and structural foundations of the evolution of functions. It was organized in 1956 at the initiative of the academician L. A. Orbeli in Leningrad on the basis of the Laboratory of Evolutionary Physiology, established by Orbeli in 1954. It was called the I. M. Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology until 1964.

The institute has (1977) 23 laboratories under the departments of the following subject areas: the evolution of the central nervous system, comparative physiology and morphology of afferent systems, the development of autonomic functions, the evolution of cholinergic systems, and evolutionary biochemistry. The institute conducts research on the functional evolution of the central and autonomic nervous systems, the biochemical evolution of the brain, the evolution of the structure, function, and biochemistry of the receptor apparatus, the evolution of endocrine functions, the development of kidney function and water-salt metabolism, the functional and biochemical evolution of the contractile apparatus, the evolution of the neuron and neurosecretory system, the evolution of higher nervous activity in children, and evolutionary regularities in the pathology of the human nervous system.

The studies of the staff members are published primarily in the Zhurnal evoliutsionnoi biokhimii i fiziologii.