biology

Search activity concept

Search activity concept is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Search activity concept rather than just read about it. In short: Search activity concept (SAC) is a psychophysiological concept that integrates subject's behavior, resistance to stress and deteriorating factors, pathogenetic mechanisms of different mental and psychosomatic disorders, REM sleep functions, brain monoamines activity and brain laterality. History The term SAC was coined during the 1970s by V.S.

Key takeaways

Search activity concept belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Search activity concept to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Search activity concept from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Search activity concept (SAC) is a psychophysiological concept that integrates subject's behavior, resistance to stress and deteriorating factors, pathogenetic mechanisms of different mental and psychosomatic disorders, REM sleep functions, brain monoamines activity and brain laterality.

History The term SAC was coined during the 1970s by V.S. Rotenberg together with V.V. Arshavsky on the basis of the physiological investigations on humans and animals according to the role of different forms of behaviour in body resistance to stress and diseases.

Behavioural attitudes SAC distinguishes the following types of behaviour:

Search Activity (SA), which is designed to change the situation or the subject's attitude to it, with uncertainty regarding the results of this activity (indefinite probability forecast), but with constant monitoring of the results at all stages of activity. In humans and high animals SA is a component of fight, flight and orienting behavior; in animals it is a component of self-stimulation; in humans it is a main component of creative activity. In animals the indication of SA is a high-amplitude and well-organized hippocampal theta rhythm. Stereotyped behaviour (St), which uses habitual skills and algorithms with predictable results and is adaptive in non-stressful conditions; SA and St both belong to purposeful behaviour. Chaotic (panicky) behavior (Ch), which may seem to imitate SA however does not include monitoring of the results of activity. It is fraught with inadequate actions and finally often leads to renunciation of search; Renunciation of search (passive behavior, Pa), which manifest itself in reaction of surrender (giving up), helplessness and freezing.

Behaviour and body resistance All forms of behaviour that contain SA belong to coping and increase the body's resistance to stress and deteriorating factors. Absence of SA leads in stressful conditions to the development of mental (depression, anxiety) and psychosomatic disorders. In opposite to the concept of coping, the value of SA lies in the process itself, not in the pragmatic outcomes of behaviour.

Behaviour and paradoxical (REM) sleep According to SAC, covert SA in REM sleep during dreams compensates for the lack of SA in the preceding wakefulness and ensures the resumption of SA in the wakefulness that follows. Functionally sufficient REM sleep dreams (based in humans on high right hemispheric skills) is crucial for preventing mental and psychosomatic disorders. In animals REM sleep deprivation combined with Pa causes death.

Behaviour, REM sleep and brain monoamines It is a positive feedback between SA and brain monoamines in wakefulness. In REM sleep SA is based on the nonmodulated brain dopamine activity and provides the condition for the resensitization of the norepinephrine postsynaptic receptors.

Behaviour and some mental disorders Paranoid schizophrenia is explained as a misdirected and irrelevant SA as an outcome of the functional deficiency of the polysemantic right-hemispheric way of thinking. Anorexia nervosa displays a misdirected pathological SA (confrontation with challenges like appetite, pressure of relatives etc.) as a compensation of deficient SA in other domains.

References http://www.vsrotenberg.rjews.com/articles.html Rotenberg V.S., Arshavsky V.V. Search activity and its impact on experimental and clinical pathology. Activitas Nervosa Superior (Praha), 1979, 21: 105–115. Rotenberg V.S., Arshavsky V.V. REM sleep, stress and search activity. Waking and Sleeping, 1979, 3: 235–244. Rotenberg V.S. Search activity in the context of psychosomatic disturbances, of brain monoamines and REM sleep function. Pavlovian J. Biolog. Sci. 1984, 19: 1–15. Rotenberg V.S. REM sleep and dreams as mechanism of search activity recovery. In: Moffitt A., Kramer M., Hoffmann R., editors. Functions of dreaming, New York: State University of New York Press, 1993: 261–292. Rotenberg V.S. Sleep after immobilization stress and sleep deprivation: Common features and theoretical integration. Critical Reviews in Neurobiology, 2000, 14: 225–231. Rotenberg V.S. An integrative psychophysiological approach to brain hemisphere functions in schizophrenia. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 1994, 18; 487–495. Rotenberg V.S., Kutsay S., Venger A. Behavioural attitudes and the level of distress in the process of adaptation to the new society. Stress and Health, 2001, 17: 187–193. Rotenberg V.S. Anorexia nervosa: Old contradictions and a new theoretical approach. International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice, 2000, 4: 89–92. Rotenberg V.S. REM sleep function and brain monoamine regulation: An application of the Search Activity Concept. In M. Lader, D.P.Cardinali, S.R. Pandi-Perumal, editors, Sleep and Sleep Disorders, Springer, New York, 2006: 27–35. Rotenberg V.S. Sleep and Memory: The influence of different sleep stages on memory. Neuroscience Biobehavior. Rev. 1992, 16: 497–502. Rotenberg V.S. The psychophysiology of REM sleep in relation to mechanisms of psychiatric disorders. In: A.Z. Golbin, H. M. Kravitz, L.G.Keith, editors. Sleep Psychiatry, Taylor & Francis, London & New York, 2004, 35–64. Rotenberg V.S. Search activity concept: Relationship between behavior, health and brain functions. Activitas Nervosa Superior, 2009, 51: 12–44. https://www.presentica.com/doc/11232907/search-activity-concept-relationship-between-pdf-document

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Search activity concept

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Search activity concept claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Search activity concept before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Search activity concept ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Search activity concept

In research: Search activity concept appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Search activity concept in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Search activity concept is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Neurophysiology, Neuropsychology, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Search activity concept outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Search activity concept in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Search activity concept means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Search activity concept out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Search activity concept in simple terms?

Why does Search activity concept matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Search activity concept?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Search activity concept.