Bilingualism and brain functional asymmetry

The task of the neural organization of the native language, acquired by a direct method and of another language, studied at school, performed correspondingly by the left and the right hemispheres, was studied in the bilingual patient after unilateral electroconvulsive therapy used in psychiatry. It was established that in such a bilingual type the right hemisphere is concerned with the formation of deep semantic structures of the native language while the left hemisphere is responsible for the formation of second language deep structures and of surface structures of both languages. The effect of language learning method on cerebral organization of bilingualism is postulated.     

The muscular sense in Russia: I. M. Sechenov and materialist realism

Contemporary Russian sensory physiology and psychology uses the notion of a “dark sense,” referring to the background of bodily sensation, especially of the position and movement of the body. The physiologist Ivan Sechenov introduced this language in the 1860s in the context of arguing for a physiological basis for scientific psychology. The muscular sense (the term preceding modern notions of kinaesthesia and proprioception) thereafter featured in the many talks and journal articles he presented to spread scientific enlightenment. The paper describes the history and significance of this. It does so in the light of Soviet representations of Sechenov as a scientist who substantially contributed to the Leninist materialist–realist theory of knowledge. These representations assessed Sechenov’s discussions as a breakthrough in world science to the understanding of the human organism as a self‐regulating material system. It is necessary to understand the purposes and pressures driving Soviet historiography. The paper confirms the historical importance the sense of movement has had in realist theories of knowledge of the world; and it contributes a previously unknown chapter to the history of psychology.