Protective Inhibition

(in physiology), a term that was introduced by I. P. Pavlov to designate a complex of phenomena that arise in nerve cells under certain conditions, including sleep and strain of a degree that causes cessation of cellular activity. In effect, protective inhibition is closely related to the pessimum that was described by N. E. Vvedenskii (see). Latest research has shown that at the basis of all these inhibitory phenomena lie extremely complex and diverse mechanisms, whose nature is by no means completely explained by what is meant by the concept of protective inhibition.