1891–1901 — the period of leadership of Ivan Mikhailovich Sechenov. In 1891, the board of Moscow University appointed him head of the Physiological Institute, which had been established on the basis of the medical faculty. Under Sechenov, a new building was constructed, featuring a vivarium, laboratories, and rooms for student practical classes. He introduced the method of demonstrating experiments into lecture practice, which fostered a close integration of the teaching process with research work. Sechenov’s ideas and discoveries laid the foundation for neurophysiology, occupational physiology, extreme state physiology, and other fields.
1930 — the medical faculty of Moscow University was separated from Moscow State University and became the First Moscow Medical Institute. The Department of Normal Physiology was headed by Professor M. N. Shaternikov, a student of I. M. Sechenov.
1955 — the department was headed by Pyotr Kuzmich Anokhin. He was a student of I. P. Pavlov and V. M. Bekhterev; he laid the foundations of the systems approach in biology and developed the theory of functional systems. In 1935, Anokhin introduced the concept of reverse afferentation, which anticipated the emergence of the concept of feedback in cybernetics. Under his leadership, the department and its laboratories, equipped with state‑of‑the‑art instrumentation for that time, hosted research by over 30 postgraduate students and doctoral candidates from various cities of the USSR, as well as foreign colleagues.
At different periods, the department was headed by outstanding physiologists, including:
A. M. Filomafitsky (1836–1849);
A. I. Babukhin (1865–1869);
I. M. Sechenov (1891–1901);
P. K. Anokhin (1955–1974) — a student of I. P. Pavlov and V. M. Bekhterev, who laid the foundations of the systems approach in biology and developed the theory of functional systems;
K. V. Sudakov (1974–2013).
After P. K. Anokhin, the department was headed by Konstantin Viktorovich Sudakov. Under his leadership, a scientific physiological school was formed that further developed the theory of functional systems of P. K. Anokhin and K. V. Sudakov.
Currently, the head of the department is Alexey Evgenyevich Umryukhin.