August 13, 2019 marks the 190th anniversary of the birth of Ivan Mikhailovich Sechenov, an outstanding Russian natural scientist, who was among the founders of a number of physiological scientific schools, including the physiological scientific school of St. Petersburg University. The article discusses the stages of its development and features of the formation of the fundamental areas of research – the development of problems of the central regulation of nervous processes and the mechanisms of formation of integrative brain activity, identifying the nature purposeful behavior and cognitive activity. In the searches of the university physiological school, a change of paradigms of scientific thinking was reflected, which is traced in the analysis of the views of I.P. Pavlov, I.S. Beritashvili and A.A. Ukhtomsky on the brain mechanisms to ensure behavior and psyche from the standpoint of the development of the creative heritage of I.M. Sechenov.