Professor Natal’ya N. Traugott’s Contribution to Studies on the Development of Central Speech Mechanisms

Abstract

The name of Natal’ya Nikolaevna Traugott is closely associated with the history of human higher nervous activity studies in Russia. Destiny gifted to N.N. Traugott the opportunity to communicate with many outstanding scientists; she regularly attended the “Pavlov Wednesdays”, took part in V.M. Bechterev’s clinical discussions, visited L.S. Vygotskii’s lectures on the problems of children higher psychic functions development. For many years N.N. Traugott had a professional relationship with A.R. Luriya and his colleagues, at the suggestion of L.A. Orbeli she had headed the laboratory of pathology of higher nervous function from the beginning of 1956. The paramount importance for the development of new directions in evolutionary physiology had N.N. Traugott’s works on the principles of cortical dysfunction in different psychopathological conditions and her recommendations aimed at a strategy for individual corrections of speech in children.