Alexander Luria (1902-1977) (**SC)

Written by: Taylar Cassidy

Alexander Romanovich Luria, a Soviet neuropsychologist, was the founder of Russian neuropsychology and played an important role in the development of neuroscience.

Luria was born in 1902, in Kazan, Russia, a small town near Moscow. Growing up in the early 1900s, Luria and his family faced many difficulties associated with having a Jewish lineage (Kostyanaya & Rossouw, 2013). Despite facing prejudice, Luria’s father, Roman Albertovich, had gone to medical school and became a doctor, allowing Luria to be surrounded by medicine as a child. During the 1917 Russian Revolution, Luria’s father was offered a job at the University of Kazan. This contributed to Luria developing an interest in the work of several different scholars, including Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, Harald Hoffding, Sigmund Freud, as well as many others.

After Luria was accepted into the Faculty of Social Science at Kazan University, he became an active member of the Student Scientific Societies (Kostyanaya & Rossouw, 2013). He dedicated himself and his research to the works of Wundt, Titchener, and Ebbinghaus. He later decided to further his education in the Medical Department at the same university. Luria had a particular interest in psychoanalysis and organized a study group called the Kazan Psychoanalysis Study Group (Kostyanaya & Rossouw, 2013). After completing some research and writing a report, Luria sent a letter to Sigmund Freud to inform him of their group and ask if he could translate some of Freud’s work. Freud agreed, allowing Luria and others to translate Freud’s work into Russian. In terms of Luria’s research and employment, he has an extensive history. He wrote articles for a journal titled “Problems of Psychophysiology of Labor and Reflexology”, lectured at the Academy of Communist Education, and worked alongside Alexei Nikolaevich Leontiev at the Institute of Psychology. He also worked at a neurological clinic at the Institute of Experimental Medicine, all while conducting research and publishing many different works. Luria got married in 1933 to Lana Linchina, who was a scientist. The couple remained married for the duration of Luria’s life and had a daughter named Elena Alexandrovna Luria, who became a microbiologist later in life.

Although Luria played a significant role in the history of psychology through his contributions to the field of neuropsychology, there is a lack of materials documenting Luria’s neuropsychology research and work (Kostyanaya & Rossouw, 2013). Some explanations for this were the strict nature of the Soviet environment at the time, as well as Luria’s modest and reserved character. Still, Luria’s work and contribution to psychology did not go unnoticed. It received much recognition throughout the world, mostly in the United States and Europe. This recognition was not always positive. According to some, Luria’s career was incoherent and disjointed; there were flaws in his work. Despite these opinions, Luria’s impact on psychology should not be ignored or disregarded.

Luria’s knowledge regarding the functions of the human brain, the development of psychopathology, and the management of neural injuries contributed immensely to the world’s understanding of neuroscience today (Kostyanaya & Rossouw, 2013). Specifically, he described the bottom-up development of the brain and provided indicators for treatment. This helped to guide further research on neural injuries and later aligned with the work done by Paul D. MacLean, who developed the theory of the tribune brain. Furthermore, Luria described the interplay between the advanced cortical system and the primitive system and allowed others to gain a better understanding of the brain and its functions. He also actively tried to educate other people on his discoveries. He lectured all over Europe and presented much of his research to better the understanding of others. For example, in 1937, Luria presented his dissertation on sensory aphasia at the Tbilisi Institute of Psychology.

Another important contribution that Luria put forward involved the findings that human mental processes represented functional systems that involved different groups of brain areas. These brain areas worked together, each playing their unique role in the organization of a functional system. Based on this knowledge, Luria assigned three functional units of the brain that were necessary for human mental processes in both general and conscious activity. The three different units include, 1) the unit for regulating tone or walking, 2) the unit for obtaining, processing, and storing information, and 3) the unit for programming, regulation, and verifying mental activity. Each unit had a structure comprising three cortical zones, including the primary, which receives or sends impulses to the periphery, the secondary, where information is processed and programs are prepared, and the tertiary, where the most complex forms of mental activity occur. Luria believed that the modern understanding of the structure of mental processes moved from isolated faculties with afferent and effector components. This unique work of Luria is underappreciated in the world of neuroscience compared to other contributors.

References

Kostyanaya, M., & Rossouw, P. (2013). Alexander Luria – life, research and contribution to neuroscience. International Journal of Neuropsychotherapy, 1(2), 47–55. https://doi.org/10.12744/ijnpt.2013.0047-0055