Having worked with Carl Ludwig , Ivan Pavlov’s first independent research was on the physiology of the circulatory system . From 1888 to 1890, in St. Petersburg, he investigated cardiac physiology and blood pressure regulation. He became so skillful as a surgeon that he could introduce a catheter into a dog’s femoral artery almost painlessly.

In addition to his conditioning work, Ivan Pavlov devised an operation to prepare a miniature stomach , which was isolated from ingested foods but retained its vagal nerve supply. The procedure allowed him to study the gastrointestinal secretions in animals . For his efforts he received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1904.

Ivan Pavlov developed an experiment testing the concept of the conditioned reflex . He trained a hungry dog to salivate at the sound of a metronome or buzzer, which was previously associated with the sight of food . He later developed an approach that emphasized the importance of conditioning in studies relating human behaviour to the nervous system .

Ivan Pavlov gave up studying theology to enter the University of St. Petersburg , where he studied chemistry and physiology . After receiving an M.D. at the Imperial Medical Academy in St. Petersburg , he studied in Germany under the direction of the cardiovascular physiologist Carl Ludwig and the gastrointestinal physiologist Rudolf Heidenhain.

Ivan Pavlov , in full Ivan Petrovich Pavlov , (born September 14 [September 26, New Style], 1849, Ryazan, Russia—died February 27, 1936, Leningrad [now St. Petersburg]), Russian physiologist known chiefly for his development of the concept of the conditioned reflex. In a now-classic experiment, he trained a hungry dog to salivate at the sound of a metronome or buzzer, which was previously associated with the sight of food. He developed a similar conceptual approach, emphasizing the importance of conditioning , in his pioneering studies relating human behaviour to the nervous system . He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1904 for his work on digestive secretions.

Life

Pavlov, the first son of a priest and the grandson of a sexton, spent his youth in Ryazan in central Russia. There, he attended a church school and theological seminary, where his seminary teachers impressed him by their devotion to imparting knowledge. In 1870 he abandoned his theological studies to enter the University of St. Petersburg, where he studied chemistry and physiology. After receiving the M.D. at the Imperial Medical Academy in St. Petersburg (graduating in 1879 and completing his dissertation in 1883), he studied during 1884–86 in Germany under the direction of the cardiovascular physiologist Carl Ludwig (in Leipzig) and the gastrointestinal physiologist Rudolf Heidenhain (in Breslau).

Having worked with Ludwig, Pavlov’s first independent research was on the physiology of the circulatory system. From 1888 to 1890, in the laboratory of Botkin in St. Petersburg, he investigated cardiac physiology and the regulation of blood pressure.

He became so skillful a surgeon that he was able to introduce a catheter into the femoral artery of a dog almost painlessly without anesthesia and to record the influence on blood pressure of various pharmacological and emotional stimuli. By careful dissection of the fine cardiac nerves, he was able to demonstrate the control of the strength of the heartbeat by nerves leaving the cardiac plexus; by stimulating the severed ends of the cervical nerves, he showed the effects of the right and left vagal nerves on the heart.

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Pavlov married a pedagogical student in 1881, a friend of the author Fyodor Dostoyevsky, but he was so impoverished that at first they had to live separately. He attributed much of his eventual success to his wife, a domestic, religious, and literary woman, who devoted her life to his comfort and work. In 1890 he became professor of physiology in the Imperial Medical Academy, where he remained until his resignation in 1924. At the newly founded Institute of Experimental Medicine, he initiated precise surgical procedures for animals, with strict attention to their postoperative care and facilities for the maintenance of their health.

During the years 1890–1900 especially, and to a lesser extent until about 1930, Pavlov studied the secretory activity of digestion. While working with Heidenhain, he had devised an operation to prepare a miniature stomach, or pouch; he isolated the stomach from ingested foods, while preserving its vagal nerve supply. The surgical procedure enabled him to study the gastrointestinal secretions in a normal animal over its life span. This work culminated in his book Lectures on the Work of the Digestive Glands in 1897.